Past IEM Features tagged: mar12
Beating March 2012
18 Mar 2016 05:26 AMFor some portions of the state, the first 15 days of March this year were the warmest on record for the period, beating the venerable March of 2012. There was some thought at the time that perhaps this March could beat it for the entire month as well! Those thoughts are gone now and as shown by the featured plot, there is near no chance of that happening now. The featured chart shows the month to date average temperature up until yesterday and then appends on each previous year's data to show potential scenarios. The warmest tan line shown would be a repeat of March 2012 and even if that happened it would come up a degree or two short. The major warmth of March 2012 happened during the last half of it, so the comparables are tough to beat.
Voting:
Good: 16
Bad: 0
Tags: mar15 mar12
March versus April
01 May 2012 05:55 AMAfter the epic warmth of March, some probably wondered if we would pay for it with a cold April. We ended up with the first statewide snow- less April in 122 years! The featured map presents an IEM analysis of the difference the average temperature during April was from March. Areas shaded in red had a warmer March than April. Areas around Chicago and other locations to our east were remarkably warmer in March by about 3-4 degrees. The start of May looks to bring us warmer temperatures and numerous chances at thunderstorms along with severe weather.
Voting:
Good: 55
Bad: 12
Tags: apr12 mar12
Humid March
03 Apr 2012 05:53 AMWhile this past March was easily the warmest on record, it was not the most humid on record as shown by the featured chart. The top chart presents the average near surface mixing ratio which is the ratio of water to dry air. By this metric, 2012 comes in a close second place to 1998. The bottom chart is the simple maximum reported dew point value for the month. In this case, 2012 ties 1990 at 63 degrees. The near term forecast has us back closer to reality with highs in the 60s and upper 50s.
Voting:
Good: 22
Bad: 6
Tags: mar12 mar
Easily the warmest March
28 Mar 2012 05:54 AMAs March winds down, it appears Ames will easily set the warmest March on record. The featured chart presents the month to date temperature rank and difference from the previous warmest value. We have been the warmest on record since the 16th and at one point was nearly five degrees warmer than any previous March on record. There are still four days to go and forecasted temperatures look to remain above average.
Voting:
Good: 18
Bad: 6
Tags: mar12
Very warm two weeks
26 Mar 2012 05:54 AMThe past two weeks of weather have been much warmer than any measure of normal. Even daily low temperatures have been warmer than our average high as shown by the featured chart. Only a slight cool down is expected in the forecast with highs back in the 60s and lows in the 40s. The payback date for all this nice weather has yet to be determined.
Voting:
Good: 29
Bad: 4
Tags: mar12
Four sigma weather!
22 Mar 2012 05:59 AMThere are many ways that one can express how different our recent weather has been from what we would expect to experience this time of year. Two such methods are shown in the featured graphic for daily high and low temperatures for New Hampton, Iowa. The top graphic is the simple departure in degrees Fahrenheit from the climatological average. High and low temperatures have been around 40 degrees warmer than average, but how exceptional is this? Another method is to compute the standard deviation of the distribution of temperatures for a given date around its long term mean. This value can be used to normalize the raw temperature departure shown in the top chart and is often called "sigma". So how exceptional is a four sigma value? It is roughly a temperature we'd expect to see every 40 years or so. The chart shows that for recent days, the low temperatures have been more exceptional than the highs.
Voting:
Good: 18
Bad: 3
Tags: sigma mar12
Setting Records in March
21 Mar 2012 05:48 AMNumerous places over the eastern half of the country set records again on Tuesday as the epic warmth of March rolls on. The temperature was cool enough to not set another record high temperature for Des Moines and so ending the streak of six straight days with a record high. The featured chart attempts to show the daily record high temperatures for Des Moines and the year during which they were sequentially set. Of course, the first year on record shows up for each date with later years slowly building over top them. The records for this year are shown in bright red. The numerous warm days in the year 1910 show up prominently, which may be the only competition for this year to be the warmest March on record. The numeric value shown on the top of each bar indicates the number of times the daily record has been set. Kind of interesting to note the most frequent days with records set having occurred in the recent period as well, which was probably helped by an initially cold period for the first year on record.
Voting:
Good: 27
Bad: 11
Tags: mar12 mar
Even low temps break record highs
20 Mar 2012 03:57 AMOur epic stretch of warm weather continues to rewrite the record books for March. A couple places in the MidWest have experienced something truly exceptional. The low temperature for the day was warmer than the previous record high temperature for the day! The featured chart shows this happening for Rochester, Minnesota on Sunday. The low temperature was 61 and the previous record high for the date was 60! This is an extremely rare event to occur and checking back through the archives of data the IEM has for Iowa, this hasn't happened in Iowa since 26 Dec 1936 (keep in mind that this feat was easier to achieve with fewer years of climatology in 1936).
Voting:
Good: 30
Bad: 3
Tags: mar12 epic
Breaking record by a month
18 Mar 2012 12:06 PMOur epic stretch of March warm continues with temperatures expected to approach 80 degrees again today. Des Moines has hit 80 degrees each of the past four days making for the earliest streak of such warm weather. It was not only the earliest streak, but bested the previous record by a month! The featured chart presents the earliest four day streak of a given temperature threshold for Des Moines. The green line was the record prior to this year. The previous record for 80+ degree days was in mid April!
Voting:
Good: 21
Bad: 8
Tags: highs mar12
40 degrees above normal
17 Mar 2012 05:55 AMThe weather got even warmer on Friday with high temperatures around 80 degrees for much of the Midwest. For some, this is more than 40 degrees above average as shown by the featured image! A number of places have also set records for the earliest occurrence of 80 degrees and the earliest streak of consecutive days over 80. The humidity levels have been on the increase as well with observed dew points being some of the largest ever recorded in March for the area. Today will be yet another very warm day with highs again near 80.
Voting:
Good: 26
Bad: 5
Tags: mar12
Rewriting the record book
16 Mar 2012 05:55 AMOur remarkable stretch of weather continues with record high temperatures being set over much of the eastern half of the United States. The featured chart shows recent high temperatures for Mason City with the previous daily record being bested by 15 degrees on the 14th. All of this warm weather is happening during the week where many schools are on spring break! At this rate, it may need to be renamed as summer break.
Voting:
Good: 20
Bad: 5
Tags: mar12