Past IEM Features tagged: oct
October Dew Point Percentiles
11 Oct 2021 05:35 AMThe weather over the past weekend continued the October trend of very mild and humid conditions. The featured chart presents some metrics on October dew point temperatures based on period of record archives from Dubuque. The top panel, which could use some tweaks for readability, presents the percentile values for dew point temperature by hour of the day. The bottom panel is more interesting and shows hourly dew point percentiles for each hourly report so far this month. Observed dew points for the entire month have been 90th and higher percentile range. Such high readings preclude any chance of the first widespread frost as humid conditions buoy temperatures during the night time. Our humid October does look to change later this week with more seasonable temperatures and values approaching the freezing level by next weekend.
Voting:
Good: 8
Bad: 0
Abstain: 1
Tags: oct
October 70+
06 Oct 2020 12:50 AMAn amazing stretch of fall weather is forecast for this week and into the weekend with highs in the 70s and even 80s! The featured chart presents the climatology of having an air temperature of at least 70 degrees during October for Des Moines. The top panel shows the number of hourly reports each year and the bottom panel shows the average number of days for the month with the hourly temperature at or above 70 degrees. Reaching 70 is nothing too exceptional for October, but should not be taken for granted as some years, like 2009, had few such warm hours.
Voting:
Good: 11
Bad: 0
Tags: oct
Big October Warmup
19 Oct 2018 05:32 AMTemperatures warmed nicely on Thursday after a chilly start to the morning. The day made for a near perfect fall weather in the state. Some places in the state warmed 40 degrees for the day including Estherville (far northwestern Iowa). The featured table presents the top 10 largest differences for the daily high and low temperature during October for the site. This site only has data going back 30 years, but still it is fun to see yesterday crack the top 10 for largest differences.
Voting:
Good: 10
Bad: 2
Tags: oct
October Precip and Snow
16 Oct 2018 05:33 AMGetting a bit of snowfall during October is not all that uncommon as shown by the featured chart comparing October snowfall totals with total precipitation for Des Moines. Of course, getting snowfall this early in October is a bit rare and we are already well above average for precipitation amount for the month. The long term average snowfall is just 3 tenths of an inch, so hopefully we stay below average for the rest of the month! The current forecast looks dry for at least the coming week, which is much needed to help farmers again make some progress with the harvest.
Voting:
Good: 8
Bad: 1
Tags: oct
Hour of New Minimum
10 Oct 2017 05:34 AMSome of the coldest air of the season arrived over Iowa overnight. A number of locations will likely set new fall minimum temperatures. The featured chart looks at the hour at which and the new minimum fall temperature that was reported during October for Des Moines. Of interest are the very few number of reports between noon and 6 PM. This shows that it is very difficult to set new fall minimum lows during the afternoon hours as it is difficult to get very cold air into the region when even minimal amounts of sunshine can provide some heating. It will be interesting to see if this situation can happen today with very cool temperature expected this afternoon for places like Des Moines.
Voting:
Good: 7
Bad: 0
Abstain: 1
Tags: oct
70+ in October
15 Oct 2015 05:35 AMHigh temperatures again warmed nicely into the 70s for much of Iowa on Wednesday. The featured chart shows that with each passing October day, these events become less frequent! In fact, it is interesting to see the frequency reverse from above 80% to start the month to around 20% to end it. The middle of the month is around 50%, so about half of the past 15 October's were above 70 degrees for a high temperature.
Voting:
Good: 15
Bad: 6
Abstain: 1
Tags: oct
Dry Start to October
14 Oct 2015 05:33 AMFor Des Moines, only a trace of precipitation has been reported to date for October. The featured chart displays the yearly precipitation totals for the 1 to 13 October period. The average for this period is about an inch. The plot shows that each of the past four years have seen well above an inch. The dry weather is certainly welcome for significant crop harvest progress to be made.
Voting:
Good: 10
Bad: 6
Abstain: 2
Tags: oct
October Ranges
22 Oct 2014 05:44 AMThis has been a rather tranquil October with temperatures within a range of 40 some degrees as shown by the featured chart. The range shown is simply the difference between the warmest high and coldest low for the month. The range this October, so far, is one of the smallest on record with only 1998 (38) smaller. Of course, this October is not over yet, but the forecast only has temperatures that may extend the range a bit higher on the warm side... An interesting data point on this chart is 1925 with the minimum that year at negative 7! In fact, the last three days of Oct 1925 all had lows below 10 degrees!
Voting:
Good: 10
Bad: 9
Abstain: 7
Tags: oct
October Progression
17 Oct 2011 05:56 AMOur temperatures have recently returned to near average for this time of year after a very warm start to the month. The featured chart looks at the past 11 years for each day in October whether it was above or below the 30 year climatological average. This October 17th will not make it above average with the rest of the week set to follow in that pattern. High temperatures on Wednesday look to only be in the 40s!
Voting:
Good: 12
Bad: 3
Tags: oct
Another warm start to October
12 Oct 2011 05:58 AMThe featured chart presents the average high temperature for Ames for the first 11 days of October. This year has been the warmest since 1997. In the past decade, only 2009 was below average and it was one of the coldest on record. The forecast has our daily high temperatures creeping closer to climatology in the 60s as it will truly start feeling like fall!
Voting:
Good: 17
Bad: 1
Tags: oct
October rainfall
20 Oct 2008 06:47 AMThe featured chart presents the distribution of October rainfall accumulations for Ames. Conditions have been on the dry side this year with totals under 2 inches. You can generate more plots like this here.
Voting:
Good: 18
Bad: 8
Tags: oct