It was a wild weather day in Iowa on Tuesday with strong winds, very warm and humid conditions, a severe weather outbreak, then a strong front passage ushering in cooler air. It was good to see thunderstorm activity again instead of winter snowfall. When it comes to thunderstorms and thunder, we are just, of course, getting started for the season. The featured chart presents the frequency of thunder reports from the Des Moines Airport by week and hour of the day. The second week of April shows up as the first strong increase in frequency for the calendar year. The hourly timing is heavily biased toward the overnight and early morning hours, which are known problems for light sleepers and those of us that have children that awake easily to storms. Iowa sees plenty of overnight thunderstorm activity mostly thanks to something known as the "Low Level Jet", which supports thunderstorm development with moisture and energy well into the night even after loss of solar heating.

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