Past Features
This page lists out the IEM Daily Features for a month at a time. Features have been posted on most days since February 2002. List all feature titles.
Mon Mar 03, 2025
Dry start to 2025
03 Mar 2025 05:30 AM
The first two months of 2025 have been on the dry side of average for Iowa, but these two months are also the driest months climatologically. The featured chart looks into how precipitation totals have come in below average for 2025. The long term archive for Des Moines is split into five daily precipitation bins that roughly yield 20% of the total precipitation totals each. The bars show the average number of days per year within each bin, with the labelled percentage values showing the percentage point departure for each bin. The chart shows the number of precipitation days within the lowest two bins are roughly half of average, which mostly explains the departure. A caveat for this type of analysis is that the largest two bins for precipitation have a sub one day frequency, so these events can significantly alter the overall precipitation total. Rewording, it would only take one or two big daily precipitation events to put a significant dent in the departure. So on cue, perhaps once such event will occur Tuesday into Wednesday as a classic late winter / early spring system dominates the weather over much of the US.
Voting: Good - 10 Bad - 0
Generate This Chart on Website
03 Mar 2025 05:30 AM
The first two months of 2025 have been on the dry side of average for Iowa, but these two months are also the driest months climatologically. The featured chart looks into how precipitation totals have come in below average for 2025. The long term archive for Des Moines is split into five daily precipitation bins that roughly yield 20% of the total precipitation totals each. The bars show the average number of days per year within each bin, with the labelled percentage values showing the percentage point departure for each bin. The chart shows the number of precipitation days within the lowest two bins are roughly half of average, which mostly explains the departure. A caveat for this type of analysis is that the largest two bins for precipitation have a sub one day frequency, so these events can significantly alter the overall precipitation total. Rewording, it would only take one or two big daily precipitation events to put a significant dent in the departure. So on cue, perhaps once such event will occur Tuesday into Wednesday as a classic late winter / early spring system dominates the weather over much of the US.
Voting: Good - 10 Bad - 0
Generate This Chart on Website
Tue Mar 04, 2025
Busy Morning
04 Mar 2025 05:39 AM
It is a busy morning for weather with a significant winter storm strengthening over the High Plains and about to plow eastward. The featured chart presents an IEM accounting of population currently under a given NWS alert headline. A good portion of Iowa is now under a Blizzard Warning for tonight into about noon tomorrow as extreme winds will likely blow around whatever snow that falls. Further to the south, an outbreak of severe weather is expected. If there is any good news, welcome moisture will fall over the state with plenty of rain before a transition to snow.
Voting: Good - 21 Bad - 1
Generate This Chart on Website
04 Mar 2025 05:39 AM
It is a busy morning for weather with a significant winter storm strengthening over the High Plains and about to plow eastward. The featured chart presents an IEM accounting of population currently under a given NWS alert headline. A good portion of Iowa is now under a Blizzard Warning for tonight into about noon tomorrow as extreme winds will likely blow around whatever snow that falls. Further to the south, an outbreak of severe weather is expected. If there is any good news, welcome moisture will fall over the state with plenty of rain before a transition to snow.
Voting: Good - 21 Bad - 1
Generate This Chart on Website
Wed Mar 05, 2025
March 5th Blizzard
05 Mar 2025 05:41 AM
Blizzard conditions are present over Iowa this Wednesday morning with strong winds and blowing snow. The featured map presents Iowa DOT / State Patrol reported winter road conditions valid at about 5 AM. A remarkable contrast is shown with conditions rapidly changing from normal to travel not advised. The falling snow continues to move off to the east this morning, so conditions will rapidly deteriorate over eastern Iowa as well.
Voting: Good - 20 Bad - 2
Tags: blizzard
Generate This Chart on Website
05 Mar 2025 05:41 AM
Blizzard conditions are present over Iowa this Wednesday morning with strong winds and blowing snow. The featured map presents Iowa DOT / State Patrol reported winter road conditions valid at about 5 AM. A remarkable contrast is shown with conditions rapidly changing from normal to travel not advised. The falling snow continues to move off to the east this morning, so conditions will rapidly deteriorate over eastern Iowa as well.
Voting: Good - 20 Bad - 2
Tags: blizzard
Generate This Chart on Website
Thu Mar 06, 2025
'24-'25 Winter Storm #15
06 Mar 2025 08:09 AM
A major winter storm brought high winds, heavy snowfall, blizzard conditions, but also much needed rainfall to the state on Tuesday into Wednesday. Widespread rainfall amounts over an inch were found over much of the state with a quick transition to snow creating treacherous driving as a moisture rich slush froze and was compacted to ice. This system also featured upper echelon wind gusts with numerous locations topping 60 MPH. North central Iowa was particularly hard hit as the featured map shows the highest snowfall totals combined with the strong winds to create impassable snow drifts that will take considerable time to clear. The map analysis of snowfall over eastern Iowa is tricky as snow totals were lighter and the multi-day nature of the event with snow falling during the daytime on Wednesday with melting. Our next winter storm arrives this Thursday evening, but will be no where near as intense as this storm was.
Voting: Good - 13 Bad - 2
Tags: winter2425
06 Mar 2025 08:09 AM
A major winter storm brought high winds, heavy snowfall, blizzard conditions, but also much needed rainfall to the state on Tuesday into Wednesday. Widespread rainfall amounts over an inch were found over much of the state with a quick transition to snow creating treacherous driving as a moisture rich slush froze and was compacted to ice. This system also featured upper echelon wind gusts with numerous locations topping 60 MPH. North central Iowa was particularly hard hit as the featured map shows the highest snowfall totals combined with the strong winds to create impassable snow drifts that will take considerable time to clear. The map analysis of snowfall over eastern Iowa is tricky as snow totals were lighter and the multi-day nature of the event with snow falling during the daytime on Wednesday with melting. Our next winter storm arrives this Thursday evening, but will be no where near as intense as this storm was.
Voting: Good - 13 Bad - 2
Tags: winter2425
Fri Mar 07, 2025
Top March Precip Events
07 Mar 2025 05:30 AM
A daily feature to end February denoted that it would take just one or two big rainfall events to wipe out precipitation deficits accumulated so far in 2025. That certainly happened for most of the state with the most recent storm on Tuesday into Wednesday. The featured chart presents the top "daily" precipitation reports for Ames with the 24 hour total reported at 6 AM on Wednesday of 1.72" inches coming in 4th largest for March.
Voting: Good - 14 Bad - 0
Tags: mar
Generate This Chart on Website
07 Mar 2025 05:30 AM
A daily feature to end February denoted that it would take just one or two big rainfall events to wipe out precipitation deficits accumulated so far in 2025. That certainly happened for most of the state with the most recent storm on Tuesday into Wednesday. The featured chart presents the top "daily" precipitation reports for Ames with the 24 hour total reported at 6 AM on Wednesday of 1.72" inches coming in 4th largest for March.
Voting: Good - 14 Bad - 0
Tags: mar
Generate This Chart on Website
Sat Mar 08, 2025
'24-'25 Winter Storm #16
08 Mar 2025 06:57 AM
Both winter storms this week presented significant snowfall measurement challenges. The first was a blizzard with extremely strong winds, so finding an undistributed location to measure a depth was impossible. The storm on Friday mostly fell during the daylight hours and much of it melted as temperatures hovered near the freezing point. So the featured map is again a struggle to accurately represent the depth of snow that fell. The map generally shows a stripe of one to three inches falling from Davenport to the northwestern corner of the state. The ice and snow we accumulated for the week will be melting quickly as warmer temperatures return to the state for the coming week. As an aside, a common Iowa weather folklore tale is that bad winter weather accompanies the Iowa High School Girl's state basketball tournament. That turned out to be the case this year!
Voting: Good - 5 Bad - 3
Tags: winter2425
08 Mar 2025 06:57 AM
Both winter storms this week presented significant snowfall measurement challenges. The first was a blizzard with extremely strong winds, so finding an undistributed location to measure a depth was impossible. The storm on Friday mostly fell during the daylight hours and much of it melted as temperatures hovered near the freezing point. So the featured map is again a struggle to accurately represent the depth of snow that fell. The map generally shows a stripe of one to three inches falling from Davenport to the northwestern corner of the state. The ice and snow we accumulated for the week will be melting quickly as warmer temperatures return to the state for the coming week. As an aside, a common Iowa weather folklore tale is that bad winter weather accompanies the Iowa High School Girl's state basketball tournament. That turned out to be the case this year!
Voting: Good - 5 Bad - 3
Tags: winter2425
Mon Mar 10, 2025
Min March Pressure
10 Mar 2025 05:30 AM
The storm that brought a blizzard, significant precipitation, and strong winds to Iowa last week also featured a very deep low pressure center that passed over southeastern Iowa. A measure of how strong the low pressure center was can be found by comparing observed sea level pressure readings at an airport to its historical record. The featured chart does just that for Burlington, Iowa and finds that for March, the most recent system had the lowest pressure reading on record for the site. There have been deeper low pressure systems over Iowa during March on a handful of other dates and including some that predated observations from this station. Interestingly, another very strong low pressure system, perhaps with a similarly low pressure reading to the storm last week, is forecast to impact Iowa this coming Friday.
Voting: Good - 15 Bad - 6
Tags: mslp
Generate This Chart on Website
10 Mar 2025 05:30 AM
The storm that brought a blizzard, significant precipitation, and strong winds to Iowa last week also featured a very deep low pressure center that passed over southeastern Iowa. A measure of how strong the low pressure center was can be found by comparing observed sea level pressure readings at an airport to its historical record. The featured chart does just that for Burlington, Iowa and finds that for March, the most recent system had the lowest pressure reading on record for the site. There have been deeper low pressure systems over Iowa during March on a handful of other dates and including some that predated observations from this station. Interestingly, another very strong low pressure system, perhaps with a similarly low pressure reading to the storm last week, is forecast to impact Iowa this coming Friday.
Voting: Good - 15 Bad - 6
Tags: mslp
Generate This Chart on Website
Tue Mar 11, 2025
Avg First 70+
11 Mar 2025 05:30 AM
Temperatures warmed very nicely on Monday with the southern half of Iowa reaching at least 70 degrees and a few spots in southwestern Iowa reaching 80 degrees. Daily record high temperatures were set in Lamoni (76°F), Ottumwa (77°F), Cedar Rapids (75°F) and a few other locations. These temperatures were the warmest to date for the year, so the featured chart checks in on the average first 70+ degree high temperature based on long term climate stations. Each station is labelled with the month/day for the 50th percentile of first day of the year, so approximately the average first date. So we are about one to two weeks ahead of schedule this year. Tuesday will be slightly cooler, but temperatures are expected to warm to similar temperatures on Friday along with a chance of severe storms.
Voting: Good - 10 Bad - 6
Generate This Chart on Website
11 Mar 2025 05:30 AM
Temperatures warmed very nicely on Monday with the southern half of Iowa reaching at least 70 degrees and a few spots in southwestern Iowa reaching 80 degrees. Daily record high temperatures were set in Lamoni (76°F), Ottumwa (77°F), Cedar Rapids (75°F) and a few other locations. These temperatures were the warmest to date for the year, so the featured chart checks in on the average first 70+ degree high temperature based on long term climate stations. Each station is labelled with the month/day for the 50th percentile of first day of the year, so approximately the average first date. So we are about one to two weeks ahead of schedule this year. Tuesday will be slightly cooler, but temperatures are expected to warm to similar temperatures on Friday along with a chance of severe storms.
Voting: Good - 10 Bad - 6
Generate This Chart on Website
Wed Mar 12, 2025
Most Recent Day 3
12 Mar 2025 05:35 AM
The long advertised severe weather forecast for Friday is coming into view with the Storm Prediction Center issuing an expansive 'Day 3' enhanced risk that just clips southeastern Iowa. While the enhanced risk threshold only dates back to 2014, this currently issued one is the 5th largest in size according to unofficial IEM archives. The featured chart presents the number of days since the last given day 3 outlook category touched any part of Iowa (for events prior to the current one). Note that SPC's highest category, a High Risk, is not possible for day 3 outlook. So the last day 3 enhanced risk for Iowa was 26 May of last year, so it has been a while!
Voting: Good - 11 Bad - 6
Generate This Chart on Website
12 Mar 2025 05:35 AM
The long advertised severe weather forecast for Friday is coming into view with the Storm Prediction Center issuing an expansive 'Day 3' enhanced risk that just clips southeastern Iowa. While the enhanced risk threshold only dates back to 2014, this currently issued one is the 5th largest in size according to unofficial IEM archives. The featured chart presents the number of days since the last given day 3 outlook category touched any part of Iowa (for events prior to the current one). Note that SPC's highest category, a High Risk, is not possible for day 3 outlook. So the last day 3 enhanced risk for Iowa was 26 May of last year, so it has been a while!
Voting: Good - 11 Bad - 6
Generate This Chart on Website
Thu Mar 13, 2025
2025 YTD Max High
13 Mar 2025 05:30 AM
With our recent stretch of warm weather, it is a good time to check in how things have trended for year to date warmest daily high temperature for Ames. The featured chart does just that plotting the daily range of this metric over each year. A simple mean is plotted along with various percentile ranges. The 2025 line can seen above average since the start of February with the most recent warm weather putting the year well above average for the date. Very warm weather will continue on Thursday with a number of sites taking a run at 80 degrees on Friday.
Voting: Good - 11 Bad - 2
Tags: ytd
Generate This Chart on Website
13 Mar 2025 05:30 AM
With our recent stretch of warm weather, it is a good time to check in how things have trended for year to date warmest daily high temperature for Ames. The featured chart does just that plotting the daily range of this metric over each year. A simple mean is plotted along with various percentile ranges. The 2025 line can seen above average since the start of February with the most recent warm weather putting the year well above average for the date. Very warm weather will continue on Thursday with a number of sites taking a run at 80 degrees on Friday.
Voting: Good - 11 Bad - 2
Tags: ytd
Generate This Chart on Website