Past IEM Features tagged: webcam

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Morning Bore

26 Aug 2023 07:05 AM
If our weather this week was not wild enough with extreme heat and humidity, some morning storms on Friday forced a bore / gravity wave event over southern Iowa. These happen when a wave becomes trapped underneath a strong temperature inversion and with high humidity values, a cloud is able to form as the wave train passes. Sadly, the only good lapse the IEM got is the featured one from the KCRG-TV webcam in Ottumwa.

Voting:
Good: 10
Bad: 0
Abstain: 1

Tags:   bore   webcam  


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Away Goes The Snow

18 Apr 2023 05:30 AM
The accumulated snow from Sunday into Monday did not stand much of a chance against warmer air temperatures, warm soil temperatures, and sunshine on Monday. The featured webcam lapse is from the KCRG-TV CityCam in Fayette (northeastern Iowa) and nicely shows the snow melting away as the day progresses. Temperatures will continue to recover this week until another strong shot of cold weather arrives for the weekend. At this point, it seems a hard freeze (temp below 29) is likely over much of the state Saturday Night.

Voting:
Good: 11
Bad: 0

Tags:   webcam   snowcover   melting  

Year Difference in Leaves

21 Oct 2021 05:34 AM
The perceived lateness of the fall turn in leaf color this year has been noticeable and when one considers the amount of snowfall we had already by this date last year, it is even more noticeable. The featured image presents a side by side of images from the ISU AMS web camera in Ames atop the ISU Memorial Union. The difference between 2020 and this year is apparent with much more green yet present this year. We have yet to see freezing temperatures in central Iowa and along with the warmth this month has keep things a big greener later into the year than average.

Voting:
Good: 15
Bad: 0
Abstain: 1

Tags:   webcam  

Smoky Skies

21 Jul 2021 05:42 AM
The smoky skies of late have made for very red sunrises and sunsets. The featured picture is from the Sigourney, IA webcam from Monday morning showing the redish haze and circular/dulled sun rise. The ongoing drought situation out west has led to an active start to the fire weather season and thus increased smoke concentrations to the east as prevailing winds aloft move the smoke our direction. A number of news stories have been written about the degraded air quality due to all the smoke and unfortunately it seems like things could get worse before they get any better this year.

Voting:
Good: 12
Bad: 0

Tags:   webcam  

Smokey Sunrise

14 Sep 2020 03:47 PM
After all the rain, cloudiness, and cold last week, this week was expected to be the opposite with plenty of sunshine and warmer temperatures. The sunshine so far has been obscured by smoke from the western US wildfires. The featured image from the KCRG-TV webcam near the Amana Colonies this morning shows rising sun appearing as a point of red due to the smoke particles in the sky.

Voting:
Good: 12
Bad: 0

Tags:   webcam  

Derecho Before and After

23 Aug 2020 01:23 PM
Imagery from the KCRG-TV webcam in Cedar Rapids on the Mount Mercy campus is shown. The top picture is from August 8th and the bottom picture is from today. The difference between the two images is remarkable. The derecho from August 10th is to blame with some estimates placing over 50% of the trees in Cedar Rapids as damaged or destroyed. The downed trees devastated the power service in the area with a thousand or so customers still without power almost two weeks later.

Voting:
Good: 22
Bad: 0

Tags:   2020derecho   webcam  

Funnel Cloud

30 Jul 2020 05:35 AM
The KCRG-TV webcam near Vinton captured a funnel cloud Wednesday afternoon. The IEM has been collecting webcam imagery since 2003 and capturing this cloud formation is not easy as they are small, transient, and difficult to spot. In fact, we've captured more tornadoes than funnel clouds on the webcams over the years. Conditions were favorable for funnel clouds yesterday with a surface boundary (winds changing direction causing spin and convergence) co-located with instability providing accelerated lifting. This particular funnel may have briefly touched down given other photos and reports.

Voting:
Good: 13
Bad: 0

Tags:   webcam  

Picturesque Storm

04 Jun 2020 05:11 AM
An isolated storm fired late afternoon over far southeastern Iowa and was very photogenic with clear viewing of the storm from many angles. The KCRG-TV webcam in Iowa City had a great view of the storm and captured a wonderful time lapse. The heat and humidity this week continues to help fuel summertime-like thunderstorm activity with more storms expected later this afternoon and overnight.

Voting:
Good: 20
Bad: 0

Tags:   webcam  

Pretty Sunset

04 Dec 2019 08:20 PM
Clear skies made for a pretty sunset on Wednesday with the featured webcam image from the KCRG-TV webcam in Iowa City. The tranquil, dry, and slightly warmer weather this week has been a wonderful respite from the seemingly non-stop rain, snow, and cold of this fall season. The webcam image is at just 4:20 PM in the afternoon and the ever shortening days has been noticeable this week as well. On the positive side, our daylight time will start to lengthen again in only a few weeks. On the negative side, we are just getting started with the winter season. So hopefully you are able to enjoy this week before colder air arrives for next week!

Voting:
Good: 11
Bad: 0

Tags:   webcam  

Wall Cloud and Funnel

10 Jul 2019 05:30 AM
With the heat and humidity of summer fully here, there is typically plenty of instability in the atmosphere to help support afternoon thunderstorms. Instability is not a lifting mechanism in the atmosphere, so it takes things like fronts and troughs to help get storms going to then feed off the instability. A few storms got going Tuesday afternoon over eastern Iowa along a boundary and the featured image taken from the KCRG-TV webcam at Tipton shows a well defined wall cloud that produced a number of funnel clouds. A YouTube lapse is available that nicely shows the rotation with this storm. The low level shear (change of wind speed / direction with increasing height above ground) was not sufficient to support more than a brief tornado near the World's Largest Truck Stop with these storms.

Voting:
Good: 8
Bad: 0

Tags:   webcam  

Red Sky Sunsets

27 May 2019 08:20 PM
The weather was rough over much of the Memorial Day weekend, but there was still beauty to seen with colorful sunsets each night of the extended weekend. The featured image presents four sunsets from Friday through Monday evening. Such beauty is a fitting reminder of the freedom we now enjoy due to the sacrifices of others.

Voting:
Good: 18
Bad: 0
Abstain: 1

Tags:   webcam   sunset  


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Setting Sundog

25 Jan 2019 05:34 AM
The wind on Thursday was blowing around the snow that fell earlier this week. This snow was lofted into the lower atmosphere and made for a spectacular "sun dogs" display during sunset. The featured web cam image is from the KCRG-TV webcam in Dubuque. This phenomena is caused by refraction of sunlight through ice crystals and is most commonly seen with high altitude cirrus clouds containing ice.

Voting:
Good: 15
Bad: 26
Abstain: 2

Tags:   sundog   webcam  

July 19th Tornado Outbreak

20 Jul 2018 05:34 AM
When one thinks of tornado season in Iowa, the month of July is not the first thing that comes to mind. The Tornado Outbreak of July 19th will be remembered for quite some time around Iowa. The event started with many photogenic funnel clouds and small tornadoes. Some of these tornadoes did damage in places like Altoona and Bondurant (northeastern suburbs of Des Moines). Larger and more destructive tornadoes followed later in the day with the cities of Pella and Marshalltown taking direct hits. The Pella tornado passed by the KCCI-TV webcam, but the viewing was difficult with the featured image being one of the better views it got. A YouTube timelapse from the webcam is available for your viewing.

Voting:
Good: 18
Bad: 2

Tags:   webcam   tornado  

Sun Dogs

16 Jan 2018 05:34 AM
If you were outside yesterday afternoon braving the cold conditions, you likely noticed a very bright "Sun Dogs" display. These are the two bright spots horizontally on either side of the sun and are caused by light refraction through vertically oriented / falling ice crystals. These are common during cold and blowing snow situations. The featured image is from the KCRG-TV webcam in Iowa City Monday afternoon showing the right-hand (to our perspective) sun dog.

Voting:
Good: 4
Bad: 3
Abstain: 1

Tags:   sundogs   webcam  

Great Sunsets

29 Nov 2017 05:35 AM
The sunsets this week have been nothing sort of spectacular over much of Iowa. The IEM collected webcams have captured some awesome time lapses recently. The featured image is from the KCRG-TV webcam in Independence Tuesday afternoon. You can find recent lapses on this website and when exceptional lapses are found, they are uploaded to YouTube.

Voting:
Good: 16
Bad: 6

Tags:   webcam  

Farewell Jefferson Webcam

04 May 2017 05:25 AM
The saying is that you'll never forget your first and within the context of IEM archived webcam imagery, the KCCI-TV webcam in Jefferson was it. Back in 2003 an unique partnership was forged for the IEM to maintain an archive of the webcam imagery and about 1.5 million images later, the running archive for the site will come to an end. This webcam was replaced by an alternative solution. This location has been the most reliable in the network and provided some of the best lapses captured over the years. Cheers!

Voting:
Good: 13
Bad: 0
Abstain: 1

Tags:   webcam  

Pretty Convection

07 Jul 2016 04:27 AM
A few thunderstorms were able to fire late Wednesday afternoon and made for very picturesque viewing with mostly clear skies surrounding them. The featured picture is from the webcam in Parkersburg showing pretty anvil near sunset. These storms died off quickly after sunset as they little wind shear support. The organized and strong storms arrived in the state overnight again bringing damaging winds.

Voting:
Good: 10
Bad: 0

Tags:   webcam  

Ames Landspout

17 Jul 2015 05:47 AM
The featured picture was captured by the webcam on the ISU Ag Farm just south and west of Ames on Thursday. This landspout was reported to have briefly touched down, but no damage has been found at the time of this writing. This storm prompted a tornado warning for Ames that lead many to discover that Ames has talking sirens now! These landspouts are formed when a strong updraft stretches an area of spin into a smaller area, which increases the rate of spin. Check out the recent news item with a link to the YouTube lapse of this event.

Voting:
Good: 40
Bad: 17
Abstain: 19

Tags:   webcam   landspout  

10 years of webcam imagery

23 Jul 2013 05:30 AM
Yesterday marked the 10th year of webcam imagery collection by the IEM. This is thanks to our partners (KCCI-TV, KCRG-TV, KELO-TV, and the Iowa Department of Transportation) who allow us to collect and archive images from their respective networks. The featured chart shows the number of images saved per year along with the first image collected from the KCCI-TV webcam in Jefferson back in 2003. These images are valuable environmental data providing easily discernible visual reports of sky and ground conditions. Along the way, over 300 lapses have been uploaded to YouTube, including a very popular Gravity Wave video with over 1.3 million views!

Voting:
Good: 64
Bad: 8

Tags:   webcam   iem  


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Ames webcam used for sunsets (often facing west) and Nevada webcam used for sunrises (often facing east)

Red Sky

12 Jul 2013 05:00 AM
Most are familiar with the old adage; "Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky at morning, sailor take warning." Does this saying apply for us land-locked Iowans? IEM's webcam archive contains an image every five minutes dating back to as far as 2003. For the featured analysis, webcam images approximately 10 minutes prior to sunrise and 10 minutes after sunset were analyzed for amount of red in the sky. The algorithm attempted to differentiate red sky from the red horizon that is common with everyday sun rises and sets. Of 2300 some sunrises and sunsets, 248 red sunrises and 88 red sunsets were identified by an algorithm. For these events, hourly precipitation data from Ames was queried to see if measurable precipitation fell in the 24 hours proceeding the event. The third bar is daily climatology which shows not much of a signal with these events, but there is a slight increase for red sky at morning events. Obviously, a limited sample and computer program does not prove or disprove this adage.

Voting:
Good: 251
Bad: 28

Tags:   webcam   sun   folklore  

No snow cover this year

09 Feb 2012 05:57 AM
The featured image is a composite of webcam images from Jefferson Iowa for the past nine years. The reported snow depth is shown for each year. There has been very little snowfall to speak of for many places in the state this winter as compared with recent years. A chance of snowfall is expected this weekend, but temperatures are expected to warm again to above freezing to help melt it away.

Voting:
Good: 13
Bad: 3

Tags:   webcam  

5 straight sunrises

02 Jul 2010 06:24 AM
This week has been a remarkable for having mostly clear skies and high temperatures around 80, nearly perfect for summer! The featured image shows that the sunrise has been visible each day this work week and our streak may continue Saturday morning. All good things come to an end though with humidity returning this weekend along with thunderstorms on Sunday.

Voting:
Good: 44
Bad: 14

Tags:   webcam  


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click image for full year view

Sunny at noon?

20 Nov 2009 06:08 AM
It seems like we have been stuck with cloudy days for a while now. The featured image attempts to illustrate this by taking a sample of the Ames webcamera imagery at noon each day since the first of August. Clear skies stick out nicely as compared with dreary gray images. The forecast has some hope for seeing some sun this weekend with mild temperataures in the 50s.

Voting:
Good: 50
Bad: 22

Tags:   webcam  

Longer daylight hours

17 Feb 2009 06:19 AM
The featured image is from the Glidden webcamera at 4:20 PM for three days since the start of winter showing the sun getting higher in the sky. If you were to make a composite image of the sun's location in the sky over the course of a year, you would get a figure 8 shaped analemma. The IEM generated a cheap timelapse from the Glidden cam showing a portion of this pattern.

Voting:
Good: 17
Bad: 7

Tags:   webcam   analemma  

Difficult driving

22 Sep 2008 07:07 AM
Today is the Fall Equinox with roughly 12 hours of sunrise and darkness. Another aspect of this time of year is illustrated by the webcam image from Saturday Night. The sun sets and rises nearly due east and west, which places it directly in the eyes of vehicle drivers.

Voting:
Good: 16
Bad: 16

Tags:   webcam  


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Looking west from Newton Thursday Night

YouTube Fun

15 Aug 2008 06:39 AM
For the past 18 months, I have been uploading the best timelapses from the webcam networks to YouTube. 150 videos later, quite a collection of weather phenomena has been collected with our famous gravity wave video receiving 625,000 hits! The featured image is from a spectacular timelapse on Thursday Night of a funnel cloud spinning overhead. You can be alerted when new videos are posted by subscribing to the RSS feed.

Voting:
Good: 50
Bad: 39

Tags:   webcam   funnel  


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Nevada webcam on 19 Dec 2007

Careful of the Fog

20 Dec 2007 07:17 AM
Dense fog has developed most every day this week as warmer air from the south keeps encountering all of this cold ice and snowpack covering Iowa. On Wednesday, the webcams caught some neat lapses of the fog lifting and then settling in again. The Nevada webcam lapse is from 150 feet above the ground, so it was above the shallow layer of fog that crept along Wednesday morning. The Newton webcam lapse shows thick forming, lifting, settling back in, and then lifting once more. We will see more dense fog today in some locations.

Voting:
Good: 13
Bad: 4

Tags:   fog   webcam  

Bore-ing

04 Oct 2007 06:38 AM
So much happened on Tuesday that it is filling two days worth of features! This webcam image was taken from the Saylorville Lake webcam on Tuesday morning, you can see clearing on both sides of the cloud that is moving to the east. This feature is showing the wave motion in the atmosphere with downward motion (trough) in the clear area and upward motion (crest) where the cloud is. The experts are still looking at the data from this event, but early indications are that it was a bore! You can view webcam lapses from Tama, Indianola, and Saylorville Lake.

Voting:
Good: 18
Bad: 3

Tags:   bore   webcam  


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Sunrise shots from Madrid webcam

The moving water tower or...

06 Sep 2007 02:55 AM
The featured image is of the sunrise for 3 dates this year from the Madrid webcamera. Any ideas why the sun's position relative to the water tower (indicated by red arrow) changes? Is the sun moving relative to the Earth? Is the water tower moving? Of course, the answer is related to the changing of the seasons as the tilt of the Northern Hemisphere is slowly starting to point away from the Sun and thus the sun is more southerly in our sky. The effect can be illustrated by comparing webcam shots of the sunrise against a stationary object (water tower). The camera is looking east, so the sun is appearing further to the right in the image (to the south) as the days go by since late June. You can also notice the change in sunrise time as our days get shorter.

Voting:
Good: 30
Bad: 5

Tags:   webcam   sun  


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ISU Ag Farm webcam

Not Hallmark quality

08 Dec 2006 11:04 AM
The cold weather certainly reminds us of winter, but wouldn't it be nice to have a nice blanket of white snow out there to cover up the ugly shades of brown evident from the webcameras. The forecast for the next 7 days doesn't hold much hope either.

Voting:
Good: 27
Bad: 11

Tags:   webcam  

Snow snow snow, yes yes yes!

10 Nov 2006 06:25 AM
It was only two days ago temperatures climbed to record levels near 80 degrees. The weather on Friday will quickly remind us what time of year it actually is. The webcam in Algona is showing the collection of frozen water known as snow accumulating on the streets. Snow will fall at heavy rates at times today with totals approaching 6 inches or more in some lucky locations.

Voting:
Good: 32
Bad: 18

Tags:   webcam  

Burning off the fog

08 Nov 2006 07:16 AM
Dense fog impacted some parts of the state Tuesday morning. The featured image shows temperatures and dew points yesterday morning along with 3 webcam shots. You can see at 8 and 10 AM how the relative humidity was 100% with the fog present. At 11 AM, you can see the clear skies and the temperature has warmed above the dew point. The sun burns off the fog by mixing down drier air and warming temperatures above the dew point.

Voting:
Good: 27
Bad: 2

Tags:   webcam  

Visitor from above

27 Sep 2006 08:51 AM
The famous Goodyear Blimp is gracing us with its presence this week in Jefferson to celebrate the 40th anniversary of a local tire dealer. The web camera in Jefferson has been closely watching the blimp. The camera is zoomed in about as far as it can go, so the image is somewhat blurry.

Voting:
Good: 12
Bad: 8

Tags:   webcam  


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Indianola webcam at 7:06 PM on 24 Sep 2006

Setting nearly due west

25 Sep 2006 07:00 AM
Fall officially began this past weekend with the fall equinox. Besides the approximate 12 hours of daytime, the sun sets nearly due west for most every point on earth. The featured image is from the Indianola webcam auto tracking the sunset on Sunday. A due west sunset would be 270 degrees of azimuth (Az). This time of year is dangerous for drivers as the sun at sunset and sunrise will be directly in line of sight for east-west roads.

Voting:
Good: 19
Bad: 3

Tags:   webcam  


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Algona webcam comparison

Shortening days

06 Sep 2006 07:03 AM
Comparing webcam images from different months but the same time of day shows how much higher in the sky the sun was back in July. The days are getting shorter as we get closer to the 12 hour day of the fall equinox.

Voting:
Good: 24
Bad: 2

Tags:   webcam   sun  


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3:33 - 3:50 PM on 6 Jun 2006

Boom! goes the dynamite

07 Jun 2006 06:51 AM
The featured sequence of images was taken from the Creston webcam yesterday showing explosive thunderstorm development that was common over Eastern and Southcentral Iowa. You can view movies from this camera and others here. The lapses show the vigorous updrafts that make these thunderstorms grow so quickly. If you look carefully, you can sometimes see ice getting ejected out of the top of the really strong updrafts.

Voting:
Good: 30
Bad: 5

Tags:   webcam  

Storms on the horizon

09 May 2006 06:58 AM
The featured image is a pretty shot from the Jefferson webcam Monday evening showing the building storm towers on the horizon. Some of those storms were severe with up to golf ball sized hail. More chances of rain for this week with the weather hopefully clearing out by this weekend.

Voting:
Good: 16
Bad: 7

Tags:   webcam  

Light Show

12 Apr 2006 07:23 AM
The Ames webcam caught a glimpse of the light show provided by a quick moving storm system that affected Southern Iowa Tuesday night. Our next chance to see similar weather will be Thursday night with stronger storms forecasted for the weekend. Temperatures will remain well above normal.

Voting:
Good: 28
Bad: 6

Tags:   webcam  


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Tama webcam shot on 22 Feb 2006

Puffy clouds

23 Feb 2006 08:04 AM
It was neat to see the puffy summerlike afternoon clouds yesterday with very pleasant temperatures for late Febuary. The sun's incident angle to the ground is increasing with each day, which means the sun is more effective at warming the ground and then the air up during the day.

Voting:
Good: 28
Bad: 7

Tags:   webcam  


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Panora webcam shots at 6 PM

Days are getting longer!

07 Feb 2006 01:39 AM
A simple comparison of recent webcam images valid at the same time of day indicates what our bodies are already feeling, the days are slowly getting longer! Recall that we are only 40 some days removed from having 12 hours of sunlight. The days will continue to get longer and there is nothing much that can be done about it until the summer solstice. Hmmmm, summer...

Voting:
Good: 13
Bad: 5

Tags:   webcam  

That is the sun

10 Jan 2006 07:33 AM
The webcamera at Tama caught a rare glimpse at the celestial body known as our Sun yesterday afternoon. The Sun was on extended holiday break, but is now back to stay for a few days before our next storm system arrives around Thursday night.

Voting:
Good: 10
Bad: 2

Tags:   webcam  


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Winter scene from Humboldt

New snow for a new month

01 Dec 2005 09:13 AM
It seems that the past few winters we have had to wait until January to get our first major snowfall of the season. This winter we don't have to be patient! These snowfalls are the fun ones since shoveling is still a novelty and there is plenty of places to put the snow. Hello winter!

Voting:
Good: 12
Bad: 6

Tags:   webcam  

Where did the white stuff come from?

16 Nov 2005 07:13 AM
Ah yes, it is November. A powerful storm system is moving away from Iowa this morning and our winds will finally begin to die down some. Snowfall totals were not very impressive, but the wind continues to blow the snow around making road plowing difficult. Temperatures will remain below freezing until this weekend when our next storm system arrives.

Voting:
Good: 11
Bad: 6

Tags:   webcam  


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Tornados from Madrid and Ames webcams on 12 Nov 2005

9 tornados on Saturday

14 Nov 2005 06:51 AM
Severe storms developed late Saturday afternoon in SW Iowa and raced to the northeast producing 9 tornados along the way. Schoolnet8's network of webcameras caught two (Madrid and Ames) of these tornados. Be sure to check out these helicopter storm survey photos courtesy of the good folks at Iowa Helicopter. The National Weather Service has an excellent summary page of the event.

Voting:
Good: 24
Bad: 4

Tags:   tornado   webcam  


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Creston camera comparison

An hour more of sunshine?

31 Oct 2005 07:22 AM
Thanks to our recent turn back the clocks effort, we now enjoy an hour more of sunshine. A comparison of webcamera images clearly shows that it is much brighter at 7 AM today than it was on Saturday. Strangely, it seemed to get darker a bit earlier last night.

Voting:
Good: 13
Bad: 7

Tags:   webcam  


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7:45 AM shot from Creston on 25 Oct 2005

Gonna be a sunny day

25 Oct 2005 07:46 AM
An early shot from the Creston webcamera is going to be a preview of the rest of the day. Clear skies and light winds should prevail with highs in the 50s. This trend should continue for the rest of the week.

Voting:
Good: 10
Bad: 6

Tags:   webcam  


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Webcam shot from Madrid.

Sog and Fog

12 Oct 2005 08:21 AM
Today is not going to be one of those crisp and clear fall days that you see on greeting cards. Instead expect fog, drizzle, and cool conditions with highs near 60. The good news is the weekend as perhaps we may see some of those clear and pleasant fall days with highs in the low 70s.

Voting:
Good: 19
Bad: 8

Tags:   webcam  


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Looking WNW from Agronomy at 12:30 PM on 8 Sep 2005

Direct Hit

09 Sep 2005 07:21 AM
Thursday was a wild day for weather on the ISU Campus. A weak tornado touched down on campus and produced a narrow path of extensive tree damage. The Agronomy Building, which houses the IEM, took a direct hit. The featured image is a shot from the webcamera sitting ontop of the Agronomy Building just before it hit. Unfortunately, the big-foot image quality may tend to discredit its veracity, but the dark cloud in the middle matches up very well with the damage path and time of the tornado. Meteorology undergrad Scott Lincoln put together an excellent page detailing the damage.

Voting:
Good: 43
Bad: 20

Tags:   webcam   tornado  


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7 AM Rockwell City on 8 Sept 2005

Finding your sunshine

08 Sep 2005 07:11 AM
With all of the rain and clouds around this morning, it is hard to find Mr Sun. But with the help of our exclusive webcam sun tracking technology, we can at least point the camera to where the sun should be (black dot).

Voting:
Good: 9
Bad: 10

Tags:   webcam  


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Webcam shot from Tama on 17 Aug 2005

Green and Blue

17 Aug 2005 09:37 AM
It is nice to see the green grass that has returned to many locations that have received rain this month. Typically, August is on the dry side and the grass starts turning brown. More rain is in the forecast for the end of the week.

Voting:
Good: 7
Bad: 1

Tags:   webcam  


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Webcam shot from Jefferson on 20 Jun 2005

Gust front

21 Jun 2005 07:30 AM
The featured photo is from the Jefferson webcam at 7:03 PM last night. You can see the thick cloud of dust near the ground as rain cooled air from thunderstorms to the north surges south. Our chances for strong thunderstorms will continue this evening with high temperatures near 90.

Voting:
Good: 11
Bad: 9

Tags:   webcam  


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Four webcams (west longitude shown) at 9:40 PM on 15 Jun 2005

Proof that the Earth is round

16 Jun 2005 06:53 AM
Via the magic of digital photography, the featured image today proves that the Earth is round! The image is a composite of four webcamera shots synced in time from last evening (click the image for more details). You can see that it is much darker at Lake Rathbun (upper left panel) than it is further west and north at Rockwell City (lower right panel). If the earth was flat, you would expect to see a sunset at the same time. Now, to prove that the Earth is a sphere and not a cylinder, here is a mpeg movie lapse of the sun setting. The movie clearly shows the slanted path of the sun relative to the horizon. What a discovery!

Voting:
Good: 12
Bad: 7

Tags:   webcam  


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Ames webcam from Thursday evening

Fiery Sky

27 May 2005 08:00 AM
The ISU webcam caught a glimpse of the spectacular light show Thursday evening. While the thunderstorms were not that strong, the air near the ground was rather dry. So when rainwater from these storms fell into this dry layer, it quickly evaporated and cooled the surrounding air. This cooled air then rushed to the ground producing brief gusty winds which then pick up dust to produce the ground dust storm. All of the red in the sky is a result of the Rayleigh scatters (dust and raindrops) scattering the blue light away.

Voting:
Good: 23
Bad: 16

Tags:   webcam  


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5:08 PM from Carroll, IA on 8 May 2005

Tornado or Not Tornado?

09 May 2005 12:03 AM
The Carroll KCCI-TV web camera caught an interesting circulation west of town around 5 PM on Sunday. Was this a tornado, landspout, dust-devil, UFO, or something else? Check out the movie and vote what you think! Movie versions in MPEG 1 or Quicktime format. P.S. The cloud base is around 4K feet. RADAR showed some rotation at the time, but not much.

Voting:
Good: 8
Bad: 30

Tags:   webcam  


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IEM brain-trust hashing it over.

Big new camera installed

15 Apr 2005 12:26 AM
It was a big day at the IEM Central Command Facility on Thursday with the addition of a new surveillance system. The featured photo illustrates the skill and precision required to install the latest edition to the web camera network. Last year, the web cameras caught a number of spectacular lapses of thunderstorms and even a tornado! If a tornado gets close to this camera, we may be in trouble.

Voting:
Good: 62
Bad: 16

Tags:   webcam  


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Webcam lapse from 10-26 Jan 2005 for Blank Park Zoo.

Teasing spring

26 Jan 2005 07:56 AM
Wow, what a fantastic day yesterday! Temperatures soared into the low 40s and 50s helping to melt some more of that snow that has been sticking around since the big storm on the 5th. Any early thoughts of spring will be corrected with more seasonal temperatures and snow in the forecast for the rest of the week.

Voting:
Good: 11
Bad: 2

Tags:   webcam  


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10:30 AM shot from Carroll webcam on 7 Jan 2005

Still digging out

07 Jan 2005 10:40 AM
The Carroll webcam shows that the dig out process from the most recent storms is still ongoing with snow and ice still covering many roads. There is hope in the forecast that mother nature will be helping out with the snow removal with some warmer temperatures and even rain!

Voting:
Good: 5
Bad: 1

Tags:   webcam  


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Gloomy shot from Indianola Webcam.

Grey, Grey, Grey

27 Oct 2004 10:58 AM
Nothing much to feature when all you see is grey outside. This pattern is nearly a duplicate of last week with another big storm system set to move in by Friday.

Tags:   webcam  


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Webcam from Webster City on 15 Oct 2004.

D(color)/D(t) < 0

15 Oct 2004 08:28 AM
We are loosing our colors! It is getting to be that ugly time of year where the colorful leaves are off the trees and everything is a shade of brown. Some locations in Iowa are at peak color while most are past that point. If you haven't already, this weekend is probably the last to see the fall foilage.

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Jefferson webcam for 25 Aug 2003 and 2004.

Staying green

25 Aug 2004 08:26 AM
The picture showns the difference between last 25 August and this year in Jefferson. You can see how much greener the vegetation is this year than last. The reason being the cool and rainy August weather that is favorable for keeping the plants green. Normally, August is hot and dry which usually causes the grass to go dormant.

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Jefferson webcam on 8 Aug 2004.

Landspout Fest.

09 Aug 2004 08:00 AM
2004 has been the year of the landspout/F0/ropenado/whatever you want to call it. The Jefferson webcam may have caught a glimpse of one Sunday afternoon. These pictures taken by the public near Gowrie are much more conclusive. The low level environment this year has been very conducive for the formation of these small tornadoes.

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Lightning strike on Newton webcam on 3 Aug 2004.

Natural Alarm Clock

03 Aug 2004 09:00 AM
During the past few nights, Mother Nature has provided a natural alarm clock for all those clocks that don't work after loosing power! Unfortunately, the 3 AM serenade is a bit early for most folks under 65. Look for this pattern to continue for at least one more day.

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Webster City webcam on Friday afternoon.

Tornado!

12 Jun 2004 12:02 AM
KCCI SchoolNet's webcam in Webster City captured one of the many tornados on Friday. This tornado is actually ~15 miles to the SW of the camera! You can view a movie generated by this camera: 3 MB .avi or 400 KB .avi. Internet service for the Webster City site is provided by WMTEL.net.

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Winterset webcam at 4:37 PM 24 May 2004.

Wall Clouds

25 May 2004 08:11 AM
Yesterday was yet another wild day of weather. Many of the thunderstorms had a feature shown in the picture, a rotating wall cloud. Fortunately, a combination of factors kept these features from touching the ground to produce a tornado. It looks like we are finally going to have a break from the rough weather.

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Indianola, 7:18 PM on 17 May 2004.

Scary Clouds

18 May 2004 08:27 AM
The webcamera at Indianola caught a good look at some scary looking clouds on Monday. The storms yesterday produced very strong winds and some large hail. Heavy rainfall also caused flooding in some locations.

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Indianola webcam late Sat night (8 May 2004).

Busy Weekend

10 May 2004 08:14 AM
It was a very busy weekend for forecasters with severe weather each night. Almost all parts of Iowa saw either hail, high winds, or a brief tornado. The unsettled pattern will continue this week.

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6:20 PM on 20 Apr 2004.

Interesting Evening

21 Apr 2004 08:15 AM
Strong storms Tuesday evening made for an anxious few moments for folks in Des Moines as a Tornado Warning was issued for a rotating meso-cyclone approaching the city. The picture is from the Indianola web camera looking back to the NW at a different part of the aforementioned storm.

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Webster City at 8:35 AM 9 Jan 2004.

View from above

09 Jan 2004 08:46 AM
KCCI-TV's network of web cameras provides us with live views of 7 communities in the state. This morning's shot from Webster City shows the inch of snow that fell yesterday. These images are archived every 5 minutes providing us a photo archive of Iowa weather.

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State Fair webcam at 7:40 AM 14 Aug 2003.

Fair Weather

14 Aug 2003 07:46 AM
A look at the Iowa State Fair this moring shows "fair" conditions with some patchy fog around. Our weather has been a broken record lately, but a warm up is in the forecast for this weekend with highs in the 90's.

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