Past IEM Features tagged: apr

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April 4 PM Temps

25 Apr 2018 05:34 AM
Temperatures warmed again nicely on Tuesday making for a three day stretch of excellent weather for most of Iowa. The Des Moines Airport reported 75 degrees at 4 PM. The featured chart presents April average 4 PM temperatures for the site by year along with the long term average and simple linear regression. The plot indicates a warming trend over the years and certainly most of the recent years have been above long term average. This year is a noted exception, but there is still a few days left to pull that average up and the forecast would indicate warmer temperatures through the end of the month.

Voting:
Good: 6
Bad: 2

Tags:   apr  

70+ in April

26 Apr 2017 05:34 AM
Temperatures in Iowa on Tuesday were rather variable with 70s common for the SE half of the state and 50s to low 60s elsewhere. Reaching 70+ degrees in April is not uncommon and the featured chart displays the hourly frequencies of having such a warm temperature for April for Ames based on period of record data back to 1997. Frequencies max out in the late afternoon between 3 and 6 PM. The 20% value would indicate one in five days, or roughly six days per April at that hour. The month of May is just around the corner and these frequencies make a large jump for the month. This is always a nice time of year when temperatures continue to get warmer, but the ugly and sticky weather of summer has yet to arrive.

Voting:
Good: 7
Bad: 0
Abstain: 1

Tags:   apr  

April Temps + Winds

18 Apr 2016 05:38 AM
Outside of having breezy conditions again, temperatures this past weekend were spectacular with highs well into the 70s and even some lower 80s in the state. The featured chart displays the frequency of having a 10+ knot wind speed reported at a given temperature in April. If you want the warm temperatures we experienced this past weekend, then you'll have to take the breezy conditions as well. The windy conditions are what help to drive the warm temperatures by transporting warmer air into the state and mixing down warmer air from above in the lower atmosphere.

Voting:
Good: 9
Bad: 0
Abstain: 1

Tags:   apr  

Recent April Reliability

07 Apr 2016 05:32 AM
While it is still early for this April, heavy precipitation events have not been all that common so far this year. For Ames, the to date total for the month is running below long term average. If this April would come in much drier than average, it would be a recent exception for this month. The featured chart displays the percentage of the past 10 years that a given month was at or above 80% of the long term average accumulation for that month. Restating, nine of the past ten Aprils for Ames have seen precipitation totals at least 80% of long term average.

Voting:
Good: 8
Bad: 1
Abstain: 1

Tags:   apr  

April vs March

29 Mar 2016 05:36 AM
March is rapidly coming to a close and will go down as one of the warmer ones on record for Iowa. Does a warm March predict a warm April as well? The featured chart compares the average temperature for March with the following April's average temperature. The trend line is only slightly positive and the data is spread over all quadrants rather equally. The last few days of March look to go out warm before slightly cooler weather is expected to start off April.

Voting:
Good: 10
Bad: 0

Tags:   mar   apr  

April Wind

23 Apr 2015 05:48 AM
The past three days have been plenty windy as strong northwest flow has persisted. The featured chart presents the daily average wind speed and direction for Des Moines Airport this month. Winds during the daytime are much stronger than at night as the sun promotes lower atmosphere mixing during the day, which brings higher speed air down to the ground where we live! The climatology for April is around 10-11 MPH, so this year is not much windier than average.

Voting:
Good: 10
Bad: 5
Abstain: 5

Tags:   apr   wind  

Another Wet April?

15 Apr 2015 05:39 AM
The featured chart displays the Iowa areal averaged precipitation totals for April. The vast majority of recent years has seen above long term average precipitation for the month. The total so far this year is on track to exceed three inches as well, but forecasted amounts do not look all that extreme for the next seven days. The featured chart a few days back noted that we are currently running a deficit for near term departures, so we certainly do need another wet April to get us ready for the growing season.

Voting:
Good: 18
Bad: 19
Abstain: 6

Tags:   apr  

Barely warmer than March

23 Apr 2012 05:51 AM
The featured chart compares the average Ames temperature for March with the following April for each year since 1893. For Ames, each April has been warmer than its preceding March. After our record setting March this year, there may have been some doubt if April would be warmer as well. The forecast has temperatures warming back up this week, but cooler weather expected again next weekend.

Voting:
Good: 40
Bad: 6

Tags:   mar   apr