After a wonderful Sunday, Monday was able to top it with temperatures soaring to levels not seen since last year. Sioux City was able to tie a record high temperature of 74 degrees. Not all of the state was able to get that warm and the sole reason was the deep snowpack that still exists over much of northeastern Iowa. The featured chart shows the obvious relationship between morning snow cover and the afternoon high temperature over Iowa for Monday. A forecasting rule of thumb states that the high temperature can not exceed 43 degrees when there is at least four inches of snow depth present in the morning, but this rule does not hold when significant warm air advection is happening. Warm air advection is the process of moving warmer air into areas with colder air. This warm air from the south helps to push temperatures even warmer.

Voting:
Good = 24
Bad = 11
Abstain = 6

Tags:   snowcover