Friday, September 20, 2013

Unprecedented Iowa Weather!

It's Friday and I have to share something that might make you smile as we head into the weekend.

Automated weather observations make gathering weather information much easier and quicker to analyze when putting together a forecast.



All Friday morning during "CBS4 News This Morning", I wondered why there was a big darkish blog over northeastern Iowa.  These are "isotherms", contour lines on a map showing locations with the same temperature.  And, on this map, the green indicates cooler temperatures and the closer to red you get, the warmer.

There was no real explanation for it since the temperatures were in the upper-50s and low-60s.  However, upon closer inspection, I found the problem.  Here is a snapshot of the Monticello Municipal Airport weather conditions.



At 8:15 a.m. Friday, the weather sensor was reporting a temperature of 129°!  Take that, Death Valley, California.  If that wasn't bad enough, the dew point was reported at 127°!

A dew point that high has never been achieved.  The world record highest dew point was 95° on July 8, 2003, in Saudi Arabia.  When combined with the high temperature of 108° that afternoon, the heat index reached 174°.

However, with Monticello's automated malfunction, its heat index was 459° Friday morning!!!!!!!  Good thing it's a malfunction.

Just a little weather humor to share today.  Have a great weekend!

CBS4 meteorologist Anthony Peoples

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