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Frost Free Days

30 Nov 2017 05:33 AM
With the period between the last spring and first fall freeze (frost free days) complete this year, it is a good time to look at the trend of this metric for Ames since 1893. The featured chart displays the yearly totals and a simple linear trend is fitted to the data. For the various climate change metrics for Iowa, this is one of the strongest signals going. This year is shown slightly above trend line and inline with the past 20 years or so of longer than average number of frost free days.

Voting:
Good: 8
Bad: 2
Abstain: 1

Tags:   growingseason  

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Growing Season Dry Streaks

22 Jul 2013 05:43 AM
It actually rained in Iowa on Sunday with the Des Moines Airport picking up eighteen hundredths of an inch! This was the first daily rainfall over a tenth of an inch since 24 June. The featured chart presents the longest stretch of days between 1 May and 31 August each year for Des Moines in between daily rainfalls of at least a tenth of an inch. The simple average of this chart is just over 17 days with the stretch this year being the longest since 1988. All of the years with a longer stretch than this year are labelled on the chart.

Voting:
Good: 62
Bad: 9

Tags:   growingseason