Drought conditions leading to brown grass. August 27th 2013

Today was day 3 of out heat wave and highs reached their highest levels so far this year. A ring of fire, or heat dome is situated on top of Iowa which is bringing this late blast of hot weather. Highs began to rise above 90 on Sunday and continued to rise each day until today. Temperatures Tuesday across Eastern Iowa ranged from middle to upper 90s. With the hottest conditions being found across the southwest. High dewpoints around 70 degrees pushed heat index values into 100s. The high heat, windy and dry sunny conditions is putting stress on crops and on lawns and gardens. As seen above industrial areas and very sunny lawns have turned completely brown. Heat and dry conditions will continue through next weekend with a peak again in high temperatures on Friday. The only chance for rain will be a slight chance of storms Friday night and again Saturday night. A cool down will happen for the area on Monday, when highs will cool into the 80s with lows into the 50s.

The following is a list of highs seen with heat index values.

Downtown Cedar Rapids 99.F/104.F
Hiawatha 99.F/104.F
Iowa City 97.F/103.F
Independence 97.F/103.F
Marshalltown 96.F/101.F
Mount Vernon 96.F/101.F
Eastern Iowa Airport 95.F/101.F
Davenport 95.F/101.F
Waterloo 94.F/103.F
Monticello 93.F/101.F