Iowa Weekly Weather Summary, April 24, 2016

A very slow moving storm system brought rain to far western Iowa on Sunday (17th) night and finally exited the state on Thursday (21st) afternoon. Heaviest rains with this system fell over far western Iowa, particularly on Wednesday (20th). Dry weather prevailed statewide on Friday (22nd) and Saturday (23rd) before showers and thunderstorms moved into western Iowa Sunday (24th) morning. Thunderstorms also redeveloped over the west one-half of Iowa late Sunday afternoon and evening, a few of which brought hail and high winds. However, this last round of storms came too late to be reflected in this reporting week’s statistics.

Weekly rain totals varied from only 0.05 inches at Marion to 3.88 inches at Kennebec in Monona County. There was a statewide average of 1.07 inches of rain for the week, slightly above the normal for the period of 0.89 inches. Monday (18th) was the warmest day of the reporting week across eastern Iowa and Sunday (24th) was the warmest over the west. In between these two very warm days, the remainder of the week brought temperatures near to slightly above seasonal normals. Temperature extremes for the week varied from highs of 83 degrees at Muscatine on Monday (18th) and 84 degrees at Glenwood on Sunday (24th) while Mason City recorded the lowest temperature at 35 degrees on Saturday (23rd) morning. Temperatures for the week as a whole averaged 6.1 degrees above normal. Soil temperatures at the four inch depth were mostly averaging in the upper fifties across Iowa as of Sunday (24th).

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