More rounds of heavy precipitation visited Iowa on Tuesday thanks to a very warm atmosphere loaded with water vapor. Such air masses are able to support efficient rainfall makers and significant amounts of total rainfall. A measure of how much water vapor is present in the troposphere is expressed by a term called precipitable water. This depth represents the amount of liquid water present in a column of air if all the water vapor is condensed. The featured chart presents a time series of this metric for Davenport along with a period of record climatology. Interestingly, the past few days have seen a remarkable swing from a very dry atmosphere at near the bottom of the climatological range to one closer to the top. July and August are the time of year for such water rich air masses as the amount of water vapor air can hold is a function of its temperature, so the warmer temperatures get, the more water vapor it can hold!

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