Iowa Preliminary Weather Summary, Week Ending April 10th, 2016

Iowa endured an unseasonably cool and windy week. Temperatures were below normal throughout the week across eastern Iowa while portions of western Iowa managed above normal temperatures on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday (10th). A hard freeze occurred over about the northeast one-half of the state on Tuesday (5th) morning with temperatures falling as low as 20 degrees at Elkader. The coldest weather of the week came on Saturday morning when the low temperatures varied from 13 degrees at Audubon to 26 degrees at Guttenberg.

On the other end of the spectrum Glenwood, Little Sioux and Sidney reached 70 degrees on Tuesday afternoon while Red Oak reached 68 degrees on Sunday (10th). Temperatures for the week as a whole averaged from seven to nine degrees below normal across far eastern Iowa to near normal over the extreme southwest. The statewide average temperature was 5.2 degrees below normal. Most of the week’s precipitation fell between Tuesday (5th) morning and Wednesday (6th) afternoon when showers and thunderstorms were widespread across Iowa. Light rain also fell across much of the eastern two-thirds of the state on Thursday (7th) with light showers also occurring nearly statewide on Sunday (10th). There were also snow showers on Friday (8th) across the northeast one-third of Iowa with some brief accumulations in some areas.

Heaviest precipitation during the week fell across east central Iowa where 1.67 inches was reported in northern Cedar Rapids. Meanwhile only sprinkles fell across parts of west central Iowa from Glenwood to as far north as Ida and Sac counties. The statewide average precipitation was 0.34 inches or about one-half of the weekly normal of 0.70 inches. Wind gusts of 35 mph or more occurred somewhere in the state every day of the week with gusts over 50 mph in some areas on Thursday and Friday. Finally, soil temperatures at the four inch depth as of Sunday were averaging in the low forties over the northeast one-half of Iowa to the upper forties in the far southwest and southeast corners of the state.

By Harry Hillaker, State Climatologist, Iowa Department of Agriculture & Land Stewardship