OttumwaSnomow

I heard 2 inch hail east of New Market MD this eve. Thats pretty extreme for that area.

Im sitting at .75 rain in may which is significantly less than normal. May has come to be about the only month in se iowa that precip is almost a guarantee. But how did that massive heat ridge come in with zero rain and now it left with fropa and zero rain. Drives me crazy that in this place this is so frequent! Whats it take to get lift here! Humidity means absolutely zero when it comes to rain here! Ive learned throughout majority of the year a south to north eastward bound cold from usually brings zero to quarter inch! But if fronts are aligned west to east and sagging or stationary we get good rains

Just absurd humidity across much of Iowa. Saw at least 77 dewpoint on my station. Many pushing 80 dp. Heard local met say iowa "corn sweat" yesterday. If im not mistaken most of corn seed isn't EVEN PLANTED ! IMO its a question of geography. Nearly seal level Mississippi basin, i feel humidity pools here east iowa, west Illinois, south wisc. A look at usa dewpoint records bears this out. Im sure this been happening for centuries before corn, when this area was swamps and predominantly grass. After all corn is a grass!

Pretty much a historic April we just lived through!

I heated with wood 2009 to 2021.. many times into late april or may. So glad i dont now! Here in my area it would have been relentless work! I have only opened a window 2 times for few hours! Furnace runs daily!

The difference in temps from sw Iowa to ne Iowa the past 3 month has been just nuts! No real elevation difference like some states. Just wild.

In general this is our 2nd latest mowing start in 15 yrs. April 2018 was not only cold but dry. But seems the tree foilage is even later this year than 2018?

It has .52 with entire last system. For first time in a while I kinda got missed. Im at 2.12 for April. But almost 7 inches since march 15th! Very wet windy cold spring.

I got .70 here didnt see any model that wet. Very wet spring continues

I grew up near Frederick maryland and it was there on my gramps farm i developed a love for weather and climate. You are correct. In SE Iowa we get occasional nice cold fronts thru the summer months. Nights in upper 50s do occur. But i will say this, Ive seen many more horrible 95 to 109 degree days than in Maryland! In 2012 i recorded easily 50 to 60 90 degree days and 15 to 18 days over 100! And the biggest misconception of folks from south and east is it isnt humid here!! I regularly compare my dewpoint with Maryland, florida and other locations it will shock you! 75 to 83 high dewpoints ARE WAY TOO COMMON HERE! last summer I recorded a 84 and a local airport was 85 dewpoint!!! It can get crazy humid and hot here and simply WIL NOT RAIN! In Mid-Atlantic almost all of the peak hot and humid days bring widespread thunderstorms. There simply isnt any lift here frequently to create storms in summer. We frequently have to wait for a perfect stalling sagging warm front returning from Missouri or the unusual phenomenon of LLJ . Many of usa dewpoint records are along upper Mississippi valley iowa and wisc!! And dont need to talk about drought? 2017 may 15 to aug 10 barely 3 inches of rain! I love Iowa but the extremes of humidity, temps, wind were even hard for a east coast country boy to get used to! All cities east of Appalachia are heat island hell holes to me. Concrete jungles that simply wont cool at night.

I must admit I dont think Ive ever witnessed so many wild swings in temps and weather in general as the past 4 months. Yesterday pm the high was 76 at midnight last nite it was still 71, but steadily fell all day low of 30! During this 2 pm snow!

We mow 160 properties and haven't mowed a single one. Apparently its going to be a late start. After last falls dry conditions, a sub par snowfall season and now a late start to mowing can be frustrating. Soil temps tough time getting above 45 so far. It seems most of usa has started mowing? But se iowa is a cool drain from minn n wisc! In 2018 i believe we didn't mow any until april 29th! Was cold n dry!

That seasonal snowfall map is woefully inaccurate. I meticulously measured 30" here near Ottumwa Iowa. On a snow board according to standards. I find snow measuring to be inaccurate often, cocorahs or observers that measure at 6 am only? Probably mostly based on radar? Ive found 3 sources for average annual snowfall for my town online, why? Also spots west of Hagerstown md with only 6 inches? Etc etc

Was a interesting march! This am 1" new snow today and .62 this event. 8 inches snow in march. Snowed on 5 occasions which is way above avg. High was 77.7 on 21st Low was 6.6 on 12th March 2022 will be remembered by at very wet pattern 3.62 rainfall and probably 4.3 if i melted snow. Early march had wild swings in temps, but in general very cool wet windy month compared to avg. Heres a couple pics this am from my game cameras.

Finshed this system with 2.07"!!! Several hours of light wet snow today. By far juiciest system since late Oct. So in past 8 days ive recorded 3.05" together with the 7 inches of snow 1st week of March a very wet month compared to avg. Nice way to prepare for growing season! We dredged our small pond last July i didn't expect it would fill this much in March!