IEM Daily Feature
Monday, 21 December 2020

Spencer vs Iowa

Posted: 21 Dec 2020 05:35 AM

One of the driest spots in the state this year is Spencer (NW Iowa) and is currently within the analyzed "D3" Drought Monitor category. Climatologically, this part of the state is also the direst portion, so a simple comparison against other parts of the state can be misleading. The featured chart presents a comparison between the yearly precipitation totals for the site vs an unweighted population of available station data within the state. The top panels shows the percentile rank of Spencer within the state and the bottom panel shows the difference against a simple mean value within the state. The long term average shown by the top panel is around the 25th percentile, so the site is typically within the driest portion of the state but it is not always the case. The top panel is interesting to note the recent 30 years or so with plenty of very low percentile values, which is supported by the bottom panel showing larger differences for the site vs others in the state.

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