Hot dry conditions August 27th 2013

Today was another hot humid day across the area. The triple digit 6th strait day in a row of 90s. however today the heat peaked at its highest level of this heat wave. Triple digit highs were seen any many officially stations across the area including Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, which both hit 100.F. The record high of 100 set in 1953 was tied at the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids today. The cause of the extreme heat was because of a frontal system mixing upper level airmass to the surface, but it was also caused by several days of extreme heat allowing night time and day time temperatures to slowly warm each day while the dewpoint lowered slightly. The highest temperatures today seemed to be along and south of Highway 30, which was south of a weak frontal system

 U.S highs map

This is a map showing what the highs were across the U.S today. It is easy to see the large heat bubble located over the southern and central part of the U.S, from about the southern half of Iowa southward. It is interesting to note the high was 104 in Des Monies today which broke their record for the day and for the latest 104 degree reading in the month. It is also interesting to note that out of all the stations chosen for this map Des Monies was the warmest in the South/Midwest.

Local Highs today

Downtown Cedar Rapids 103.F
Marion 101.F
Hiawatha-( My Station) 101.F
Iowa City 100.F
Eastern Iowa Airport 100.F
Marshalltown 97.F
Monticello 95.F
Independence 95.F
Waterloo 95.F
Dubuque 92.F

 Iowa Drought Monitor

Extreme heat and lack of rainfall this month is leading to drought across the entire eastern half of the state. In all this month The Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids has only received 0.11″ of rain, and in Iowa City even less 0.08″ of rain has fallen for the month. This coupled with wind and extreme heat is taking its toll on plants, Crops and other vegetation such as lawns are started to be effected and turn brown and I’ve seen some trees starting to loose leaves under severe stress from last years drought with the addition of dry weather this year. Fortunately we do have a 50% chance of Thunderstorms on Sunday, which is a much better chance then we’ve had all month. Saturday and Sunday will be much cooler then Friday was, but will still be quite warm in the middle to upper 80s. Sundays storms will be sparked by a cold front which will drop our highs temporarily into the middle 70s with lows in the 50s.