Weekly Iowa Weather Report, September 27, 2015

Iowa experienced another unseasonably warm week with temperatures averaging 8.2 degrees above normal.

Monday (21st) brought the lowest temperatures with highs in the seventies statewide while Elkader recorded a morning low of 41 degrees. Daily highs were in the seventies and eighties for the remainder of the week with highest readings of 86 degrees on Tuesday (22nd) at Atlantic, Lamoni, Oakland and Osceola. Rainfall was exceptionally variable.

There was no rain statewide on Monday (21st), Saturday (26th) and Sunday (27th). A very slow moving low pressure center brought an extended period of showers and thunderstorms to western Iowa between Tuesday morning and early Friday morning. Torrential rain was centered upon western Pottawattamie and Mills counties on Wednesday morning with another area across southwest Monona County. No rain fell over the eastern one-half of Iowa during the week while Council Bluffs recorded as much as 9.28 inches of rain and Glenwood saw 6.80 inches.

Rainfall of two inches or more was common across a wide area of west central and southwest Iowa. The statewide average precipitation was 0.79 inches or just slightly more than the weekly normal of 0.75 inches.

Harry Hillaker, State Climatologist, Iowa Department of Agriculture & Land Stewardship