Results tagged “weather” from DesMoinesIst

The National Weather Service has a lot of details about how much snow has fallen on Des Moines this year, and how much of it has stuck around for how long. But the real metric that matters is how much snow has fallen so far this winter, versus the amount that's fallen in any other winter...

There's an inbound snowstorm that's supposed to drop another 2" of snow on our heads today, so the normal rounds of parking bans are falling into place. West Des Moines has imposed one from now until 5:00 pm on Tuesday, which means it's likely Des Moines will be doing the same soon enough. Des Moines has an interactive map showing the progress of snow removal all over the city.

The winter weather this year has felt extraordinarily bad, but it's hard to tell whether we're just imagining our oppression -- especially since it's been almost a year since the last round of winter weather, and that intervening year included tornado season. But the kind folks at the National Weather Service have confirmed our victimhood this year: Only once has there been more snow in Des Moines in December and January than we've had this winter, and only twice have we gone longer with snow on the ground.

Seriously, Nature: Knock it off.

We were right. The storm reports from last night suggest it wasn't just tornado weather...it was hail and high wind weather, too. Damage was left behind. And there's a big, fat, ugly blotch over much of Iowa threatening new severe weather for tonight. We're being given another sporting chance of lots of new storms before the night is through. No thanks, Mother Nature. No thanks.

When it gets hot and humid outside (right now, it's 90° outside with a dewpoint in the seventies), a certain feeling outside tells long-term residents of this part of the country that things could get nasty. That's being confirmed by scientific observation today, with the Storm Prediction Center slapping a tornado watch over our neighbors just to the south and west. Conveniently, the local National Weather Service office here in Des Moines has begun testing an interactive weather briefing that goes into good detail about the conditions out there. It's a little more technical and a little less graphically pretty than what you'll get on radio or television, but it's candy for weather nerds.

The National Weather Service is saying that we might see funnel clouds today because of conditions in the atmosphere. There is a slight risk for severe weather today, but the funnel clouds they're talking are really less severe than the tornadoes we get with severe thunderstorms. An actual tornado just over a week ago produced mostly tree damage around Adel and Dallas Center.

Polk County is conducting its routine seasonal maintenance on the civil-defense sirens in the Des Moines area, since we're not expecting any severe weather around here this week, and severe-weather season is just around the corner. On a related note, several Central Iowa counties are working together to solicit bids for an automatic emergency-notification system that would use phones, e-mail, fax, and other means to contact local residents in case of emergency. We, of course, already have the Emergency Alert System for broadcasters to use to relay alerts. WHO Radio gets the distinction of originating most of the alerts in Iowa.

The powerful storm system that moved through town on Sunday night was an example of a derecho event -- basically, it's a storm that has most of the power of a tornado, but in a wide, straight line rather than one spiraling mess. The amount of power in the system that moved through the other day is evident from a time-lapse view of the regional radar summary. The system builds in Nebraska late in the evening, then comes roaring into Iowa overnight, gaining speed as it goes. The storms made it to Ohio by early afternoon -- covering about a thousand miles in 12 hours. While we had some power outages in the Des Moines area, the Quad Cities had it a lot worse and Sioux City has had a real mess to clean up.

Polk County Emergency Management sent out a notice to the news media today, with the following warning:

The Polk County Emergency Management Agency is asking for increased vigilance as an approaching cold front could impact the area this afternoon and evening.  This is of special concern because of several large outdoor social events scheduled across the Metro Area this afternoon and evening.

They're talking, of course, about the Des Moines Arts Festival, Clive After Five, Urbandale Friday Fest, Fridays at the Fountain, and the Iowa Cubs (playing Albuquerque at 5:05). Because, as we've all heard, there's "nothing to do" around here.

Update: Clive After Five has been cancelled for tonight.

Mahaska County got a tornado hit yesterday, moving us officially into tornado season. Looks like Severe Weather Awareness Week might need to come earlier next year. A little farther to the east, a guy sitting near Keota caught a pretty clear photo of another tornado yesterday.

It's Severe Weather Awareness Week in Iowa, with a special topic for each day: Flooding on Monday, severe thunderstorms today, tornadoes (with the statewide tornado drill) tomorrow, NOAA Weather Radio on Thursday, and preparedness on Friday.

There's a reason this event happens in early April: It's just slightly into tornado season in Iowa. It probably would be smarter to schedule the "awareness week" for just a little earlier in the year, like the end of March, because several of the state's worst tornado outbreaks have actually occurred in early April. But by pushing it earlier in the year, it might be overwhelmed by people's natural inclination to still be preoccupied with the end of winter weather...which, given last week's freak snowstorm, might be a challenge to overcome. But if we're going to practice a tornado drill, then it might be best to have that practice prior to any time we'd normally expect to get a twister.

Just about everything in nature has a useful purpose: Fires regenerate forests, lightning fixes nitrogen in the soil, and blizzards recharge aquifers. But ice storms? They just coat streets, break tree limbs, and leave a third of Oklahoma without power. And now it's Iowa's turn. Gee, thanks. As of 1:00 in the morning, we already had almost 1/8th of an inch of ice everywhere.