Here is a fun fact. on November 12th Grand Rapids had its 1st day the high was below 50 this year. and that it was the latest such day in Grand Rapids history. At Grand Rapids there have been 18 years when there were no days below 50 for highs in October. This year is now the latest it has gotten below 50 for a high for the 1st time the old record was November 10th in 2005 there have been 2 years with the latest being November 8th (1956 and 1924) yet another example of just how warm this year has been.

I think urban heat island a big factor at DSM. Even here in Ottumwa if the thermometer was closer to the des river and in the small concrete jungle on both sides des river our temperatures would be much higher than at OTM several miles north and surrouned by flat farmland. Ive been watching it for yrs. Easily a 7 degree difference in daytime highs and 4 to 6 degrees in overnight lows. And we see it in our snow snd ice management work. Just think of all the "official" locations earthwide that were once very rural, fields and trees(where airports were originally built) that 50 years later are total concrete jungles!!!!

The official H/L yesterday at GR was 53/29 there was 0.12” of rainfall the sun was out 41% of the time, the highest wind was 30 MPH out of the E. For today the average H/L is 48/33 the record high of 68 was set in 1902 the coldest high of 27 was set in 1900. The record low of 13 was set in 1969 the warmest low of 58 was set in 1958. The wettest was in 1957 with 1.41” the most snowfall of 4.5” fell in 1974 the most on the ground at 7 AM was 4” in 1959

2005 was so active, we still had 4 named storms from this point (Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta). The most amazing part is that none of them were a short one or two-day storm. All of them lasted for about a week, even Zeta during the first week of January.

This summer and fall have been one huge B O R E F E S T so far, and also aggravating when the Santa Anas come up due to fire danger.