State Climatologist Justin Glisan (like listen) says the heat dome that settled over Iowa in August had an impact on both temperatures and the amount of rainfall.
Glisan says it will end up out of the top 25 in the record book for warmest August. August averaged five-and-a-quarter inches of rainfall — about one-pint-one-two inches above normal. Glisan says the heat dome determined where that precipitation fell, with the driest areas missing out again.
He says the rain fell in swath from western to eastern Iowa that bent to the south.
Glisan explains how the heat dome determined where the rains fall.
Glisan says that ridge also blocked out a lot of northern Iowa from the rainfall. The heat dome has returned as we start September, and Glisan says the good news is the dome has shifted.
Glisan says that could help out the drier areas of the state recover some of their moisture deficit.
