A tornado destroyed about 75 percent of the southwest Iowa town of Thurman in mid-April, the same day a tornado smashed into Creston, doing major damage to a hospital. But State Climatologist Harry Hillaker says other than that outbreak of severe weather, it’s been “fairly quiet” in terms of tornado activity in Iowa this year. “May and June are peak months for tornado activity and June the 9th would be kind of the mid-point to the tornado season, so we’re not quite to the very heart of tornado season — but we’re pretty darned close to it, though,” Hillaker says. “But thus far it’s been, you know, fairly quiet as far as severe weather — both tornadoes and hail, and high winds and such.”

Forecasters recently divided the country into 100-square-mile increments and mapped out tornado touch downs. The research found that in the past 20 years, Iowa has had more tornadoes touch down than all but two states. Recent forecasts indicate a period of calm weather ahead for Iowa. “Of course that could change in just one afternoon and kind of make the season with one bad outbreak,” Hillaker says. “But so far we’ve avoided any really big, widespread events.”

According to the National Weather Service there were 50 tornadoes in Iowa last year. Twenty tornadoes were reported in Iowa on one day — April 9, 2011.

(Radio Iowa)

345 AM CDT SAT JUN 2 2012

TODAY (SATURDAY)…SUNNY…WARMER. HIGH IN THE UPPER 70S. NORTHWEST WIND 10 TO 15 MPH.

TONIGHT...MOSTLY CLEAR. LOW IN THE MID 50S. WEST WIND 5 TO 10 MPH SHIFTING TO THE SOUTH AFTER MIDNIGHT.

SUNDAY…MOSTLY SUNNY. A 20 PERCENT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS IN THE AFTERNOON. HIGH IN THE LOWER 80S. SOUTH WIND 5 TO 15 MPH.

SUNDAY NIGHT…MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS THROUGH MIDNIGHT…THEN PARTLY CLOUDY WITH A SLIGHT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS AFTER MIDNIGHT. LOW IN THE LOWER 60S. SOUTH WIND 5 TO 10 MPH SHIFTING TO THE WEST AFTER MIDNIGHT. CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS 30 PERCENT.

MONDAY…MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGH IN THE MID 80S. NORTH WIND 5 TO 10 MPH.

MONDAY NIGHT AND TUESDAY…PARTLY CLOUDY. LOW IN THE LOWER 60S. HIGH IN THE LOWER 80S.

TUESDAY NIGHT…MOSTLY CLEAR. LOW IN THE LOWER 60S.

WEDNESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY…PARTLY CLOUDY. HIGH IN THE UPPER 70S. LOWS AROUND 60.

Here is the (podcast) weather forecast for Atlantic and the KJAN listening area, from Freese-Notis Meteorologist Dan Hicks, and the weather data for Atlantic, from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson….

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (965.5KB)

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Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have announced the agency is providing additional tools for federal, state, local officials and others, to alert and warn the public about severe weather. The Commercial Mobile Alert System, or CMAS, will be used to deliver Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) to wireless carriers for distribution to the public. That means your cell phone will receive messages on its screen, similar to a text message, showing the type and time of the alert, along with what type of action will be taken. The alerts will NOT take the place of locations where CODE RED alert systems are in-place, as those systems also handle a wide variety of local emergency situations. 

The message will be no more than 90 characters, and will have a unique tone and vibration, indicating a WEA has been received. If an alert is received by your cell phone, you are advised to follow the instructions and seek additional information from local radio, television, NOAA Weather Radio and other official sources for emergency information. 

The alerts will be broadcast by cell towers. Any cell phone within range of those specific towers will immediately pick up the signal, provided they are capable of receiving the alerts. The availability of WEA alerts will be dependent on the network status of the wireless carriers and handset availability, since not all cell phones receive WEA’s. Check with your cellular carrier to see if WEA alerts are available in your area. 

FEMA says as with all new cellular services, it will take time for upgrades in infrastructure, coverage and handset technology, to allow WEA alerts to reach all cellular customers.

406 AM CDT FRI JUN 1 2012 NWS/Des Moines

TODAY...MOSTLY SUNNY. WARMER. HIGH IN THE UPPER 60S. WEST WIND 5 TO 10 MPH.

TONIGHT…MOSTLY CLOUDY. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS THROUGH MIDNIGHT…THEN A SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS AFTER MIDNIGHT. LOW IN THE LOWER 50S. WEST WIND 5 TO 10 MPH. CHANCE OF PRECIPITATION 50 PERCENT.

SATURDAY…MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGH IN THE UPPER 70S. NORTHWEST WIND 5 TO 10 MPH.

SATURDAY NIGHT…MOSTLY CLEAR. LOW IN THE LOWER 50S. WEST WIND 5 TO 10 MPH SHIFTING TO THE SOUTH AFTER MIDNIGHT.

SUNDAY…MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGH IN THE MID 80S. SOUTH WIND 10 TO 15 MPH WITH GUSTS TO AROUND 25 MPH.

SUNDAY NIGHT…MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A 30 PERCENT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS. WARMER. LOW IN THE MID 60S.

MONDAY THROUGH TUESDAY…PARTLY CLOUDY. HIGH IN THE MID 80S. LOW IN THE MID 60S.

The Iowa Department of Transportation today (Thursday) announced the release of a Storify project, chronicling the 2011 Missouri River flooding and its impacts on Iowa’s transportation system. Photos, video and news articles are featured, along with a narrative detailing the events that unfolded as the flood waters inundated western Iowa.

Just one of the images from the historic Mo. River flood of 2011

Go to http://www.iowadot.gov/ to view the story, and take the six-month journey to recount the flood fight, extensive damage and how quickly Iowa was able to rebuild.  

The flooding in Iowa covered a distance of 150 miles from Sioux City to Hamburg. In its path roadways were turned to rubble or covered with a thick layer of sludge. Vegetation was stripped from the landscape. Closure of miles of Interstate 29, coupled with the closing of the Missouri River bridges near Decatur, Nebraska City and Omaha, Neb., left motorists searching for detours that took them miles out of their way.

If you would like to recount your personal experience with the 2011 flood, visit the Iowa DOT’s Facebook site and post a comment or upload your photos or video: www.facebook.com/iowadot.

Here’s the (podcast) Freese-Notis 4-day forecast for Atlantic, & the KJAN listening area, from Meteorologist Dan Hicks, and the weather data for Atlantic, from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (1.1MB)

Subscribe: RSS

358 AM CDT THU MAY 31 2012

EARLY THIS MORNING…CLOUDY WITH A 40 PERCENT CHANCE OF LIGHT SHOWERS. NORTHEAST WIND AROUND 10 MPH.

TODAY…CLOUDY…COOLER. A CHANCE OF LIGHT RAIN IN THE MORNING…THEN A CHANCE OF LIGHT SHOWERS EARLY IN THE AFTERNOON. A SLIGHT CHANCE OF LIGHT SHOWERS LATE IN THE AFTERNOON. HIGH IN THE UPPER 50S. NORTH WIND 10 TO 15 MPH. CHANCE OF PRECIPITATION 50 PERCENT.

TONIGHT…MOSTLY CLOUDY IN THE EVENING THEN CLEARING. LOW IN THE MID 40S. NORTHWEST WIND 5 TO 10 MPH.

FRIDAY…MOSTLY SUNNY. WARMER. HIGH IN THE UPPER 60S. WEST WIND 5 TO 10 MPH.

FRIDAY NIGHT…MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS. LOW IN THE LOWER 50S. SOUTHWEST WIND 5 TO 10 MPH. CHANCE OF PRECIPITATION 20 PERCENT.

SATURDAY…MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGH IN THE UPPER 70S. WEST WIND 5 TO 10 MPH.

SATURDAY NIGHT…PARTLY CLOUDY. LOW IN THE UPPER 50S.

SUNDAY AND SUNDAY NIGHT…PARTLY CLOUDY. A 20 PERCENT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS. HIGH IN THE LOWER 80S. LOW IN THE MID 60S.

May has been dry, but not dry enough to set any statewide records. State Climatologist Harry Hillaker says an average of three inches of rain fell in the state this past month. “Basically you had a fairly wet first six days of the month and a few places since then have stayed a bit the wet side, mostly northwestern Iowa,” Hillaker says. “But certainly a lot of Iowa, especially the central and southern sections, have been very dry now for the last three, three-and-a-half weeks or so, but not one for the record books, even in those drier areas.” Temperatures in Iowa for May are about six degrees above normal.  “(That) probably would put us in the top 10 as far as warmest Mays, although we will be cooling things off here just a tiny bit here in the last couple of days of the month, so that might drop the ranking just a little bit,” Hillaker says. “It’s actually been a more unusually warm month than unusually dry at this point.” A large part of the state currently is classified as “abnormally dry” — the lowest level in a nationwide system that measures drought conditions. The west central and north central Iowa are “moderately dry”.

“Right now, nothing is in an especially bad category as far as drought conditions go, but we’re getting to that time of the year when things can change pretty rapidly if we get higher temperatures and higher evaporation rates because of that,” Hillaker says. “If we don’t get rain, you know, things can dry out very, very quickly at this time of the year.” The southern two-thirds of the state has “parched” topsoil that needs some rain, according to Hillaker, and recent windy conditions are exacerbating the problem.

(Radio Iowa)

Warm, windy weather — and a lack of rain — are raising drought concerns in Iowa. The latest U-S-D-A report indicates about half of Iowa farm fields are short or very short of topsoil moisture. Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey says it’s worrysome. “Ironically northwest Iowa was probably our driest area going into spring and they’ve gotten rains,” Northey says. “But the balance of the state is really short of moisture and normally we don’t expect that dry weather until later in the season.” Dry conditions in late May and early June put a “unique kind of stress” on crops, according to Northey.

Corn, for example, is showing inadequate root growth.”When the crop is so short of moisture in that top soil, it actually is hard for those roots to find moisture and, therefore, to grow,” Northey says. “You would think normally…dry weather will cause those roots to go down and try to find moisture, but in some of our areas it’s so dry, if it’s not finding moisture, it actually stops those roots from growing.” While corn in some areas has weak root systems, some soybeans are just sitting in the ground and haven’t sprouted. “We do plant soybeans shallower. We plant them later and if you do a little bit of tillage, it dries out the top, especially since some of our areas of the state haven’t had rain for three weeks or at least any sizable rain and some very dry weather in the last three or four weeks as well.” The other problem is the soybean sprouts, but then dies because of lack of moisture.

Fifty-one percent of Iowa farm fields are “short” or “very short” of topsoil moisture according to the latest U-S-D-A report. The rating for subsoil moisture is 42 percent “short” or “very short.” The driest section of the state is south central Iowa, where 83 percent of the topsoil is “short” or “very short” of moisture.

Link to the U-S Drought Monitor website: http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

(O. Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)