While far northeastern Iowa missed out on the very hot temperatures thanks to morning storms and being on the north side of the staled boundary, everybody got in on the tropical humidity levels with dew points well into the 70s and even a few 80 degree reports. One simple measure of heat magnitude is a computed metric called stress degree days. This daily value is typically defined as the high temperature minus 86 Fahrenheit. The featured chart presents the daily climatology and 2022 values for Ames. The accumulation for the previous day is noticeably higher than any previous day this year and at the high end of what's possible this time of year. The peak accumulation of this metric is certainly during the months of July and into August. While recent rains are helping to increase humidity and thus the miserable nature of our present heat spell, they are also helping newly sprouted crops with available soil moisture to help mitigate the present accumulation of stress degree days.

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