Today: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 1pm. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 77. East wind 5 to 10 mph. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 61. East wind around 6 mph.
Wednesday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 83. East southeast wind 5 to 7 mph becoming west northwest in the afternoon.
Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 80.
Friday: Sunny, with a high near 80.
Monday’s High in Atlantic was 76. We received .06″ rain. Our Low was 54. Last year on this date the High was 86 and the Low was 61. The Record High was 107 in 1936, and the Record Low was 44 in 1953. Sunrise is 6:01-a.m. Sunset is 8:51-p.m.
(Radio Iowa) – Smoke from the Canadian wildfires is being swept out of the state. John Gering of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources has looked at the latest map. “It does appear to be a north to south clearing,” he says. This latest round of smoke had settled at the surface level. That’s why alerts indicated air quality has been unhealthy for sensitive groups. “If it stays up high in the atmosphere, it’s not going to affect people and it’s not going to register on our monitors,” Gering says, “so it’s that combination of emissions, horizontal winds and vertical mixing.” The Iowa D-N-R’s STATEWIDE air quality alert ends at noon today (Monday). The alert has recommended that people reduce long or intense outdoor activities due to the fine particulates in the air.
“They’re about 30 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair,” Gering says, “so they get in your lungs and your lungs have a hard time expelling the small particles.” The fires carry chemicals which in the presence of sunlight form ozone, an odorless gas. Over the past five years, there have been an average of three to four air quality warnings related to high ozone concentrations in Iowa at ground level. By June 12th, there had been 124 — so that does not include this weekend’s conditions.
“Likewise we’ve had 22 exceedences of the fine particulate matter standard reported through July 12,” Gering says, “and there’s going to be some additional exceedences of that standard coming in, rolling in over the next few weeks.” Staff collect filters at monitors throughout the state and take them to the University of Iowa where they are manually weighed. Gering says that process takes a while, so the in-depth analysis of this weekend’s air quality won’t be completed for a couple of weeks.
(Western Iowa News) – Weather radios blared a severe thunderstorm warning at 1:09-a.m., Monday, for a storm cell approaching northern Cass, Adair, Audubon and part of Guthrie County. That was just the start of what would turn out to be a busy morning for severe weather in western and southwest Iowa. Storms fired-up a couple of hours later in the western counties of the KJAN listening area, and made their way into southern/west central parts of the state, essentially along and just north of Interstate 80, and south of the Interstate.
The National Weather Service in Valley, NE (Omaha) and Johnston, IA (Des Moines), were fielding storm reports all morning , Monday. Those reports came in from trained storm spotters, county Emergency Management officials, and the general public. You can view the latest reports from the Des Moines Weather Service Office HERE, or the Omaha Office HERE.
We’ve compiled a list of storm reports for western/southwest Iowa on the kjan.com weather page. Here’s a synopsis of those reports from the latest to the earliest….
8:40-a.m., 1.25″ hail (Half-dollar size) in Malvern (reported by a storm spotter)
8:38-a.m., 1 inch (Quarter-size) diameter hail reported in Malvern (Mills County), by a trained storm spotter.
8:35-a.m., The public reported Ping-pong ball size (1.5″) hail in Malvern.
6:44-a.m., 1 inch diameter hail reported in Mount Ayr (Ringgold County), by Emergency Mgmt.
5:59-a.m., Nickel-size hail (.88′) 3 miles w/sw of Fontanelle (Adair County); Highway 92 from Gibbon Ave to Delta Ave. completely covered with up to nickel sized hail.
5:27-a.m., 1″ diameter hail reported in Woodbine (Harrison County)
5:10-a.m., Penny-size hail (.75″) 5 miles east of Irwin (Shelby County)
5:08-a.m., Nickel-size hail lasted for 10-minutes in Audubon. (Audubon County)
1:18-a.m., .75″ hail (penny-size) 1 mile w/sw of Stuart (Adair County)
8:40-a.m., 1 1/4″ hail (Half-dollar size) in Malvern (reported by a storm spottter)
8:38-a.m., 1 inch (Quarter-size) diameter hail reported in Malvern (Mills County), by a trained storm spotter.
8:35-a.m., The public reported Ping-pong ball size (1.5″) hail in Malvern.
6:44-a.m., 1 inch diameter hail reported in Mount Ayr (Ringgold County), by Emergency Mgmt.
5:59-a.m., Nickel-size hail (.88′) 3 miles w/sw of Fontanelle (Adair County); Highway 92 from Gibbon Ave to Delta Ave. completely covered with up to nickel sized hail.
5:27-a.m., 1″ diameter hail reported in Woodbine (Harrison County)
5:10-a.m., Penny-size hail (.75″) 5 miles east of Irwin (Shelby County)
5:08-a.m., Nickel-size hail lasted for 10-minutes in Audubon. (Audubon County)
1:18-a.m., 3/4″ hail (penny-size) 1 mile w/sw of Stuart (Adair County)
(Radio Iowa) – Recent rains have given some hope that Iowa will pull out of the drought conditions that weren’t helped by a drier than normal spring. D-N-R hydrologist, Tim Hall, says some areas saw several inches of rain in a short time — which he says is good — even if a lot of it ran off the ground without sinking in. “Any rain we get is good for the environment. If it runs off quickly, it ends up in the stream. Stream flows were way down, so getting some increased rainfall in our stream system is great,” Hall says.
He says there weren’t any reports of significant flash flooding, which is a good indicator of just how dry it is. “We’ll take what we get, and we’ll we’ll count it as a good thing. And we’ll hope to get some more,” he says. Hall says the impact was immediate on some of the waterways that have restrictions on them for irrigation. “We had some streams that were dropping and dropping and dropping and then you get an ice rain like this and those stream flows pop back up higher. So it certainly helps the situation with folks who are wanting stream flow water for irrigation,” according to Hall.
He says we need more consistent rains at about one inch each week. “No single storm event is going to eliminate drought in the state of Iowa,” he says. “It’s gonna take sustained rainfall events over a long period of time to do that.”
The recent rains should show up in the U-S Drought Monitor which comes out Thursday.
Today: Air Quality Advisory for Canadian wildfire smoke until Noon. Isolated showers and thunderstorms before 9am. Areas of smoke between 7am and 1pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 78. North northeast wind 5 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Tonight: Increasing clouds, with a low around 59. North northwest wind 5 to 7 mph becoming light and variable.
Tuesday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly between 10am and 3pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 77. Southeast wind 7 to 11 mph. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Tuesday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 61. East wind 6 to 10 mph.
Wednesday: Partly sunny, with a high near 83.
Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 82.
Sunday’s High in Atlantic was 82. Our Low this morning, 61. We received .18″ rain at the KJAN studios overnight into early this morning. Last year on this date the High was 88 and the Low was 60. The Record High was 109 in 1936, and the Record Low was 45 in 1911. Sunrise is 6:00-a.m. Sunset is 8:51-p.m.
AIR QUALITY ALERT THROUGH MONDAY NOON
Today: Scattered showers and thunderstorms before 2pm, then isolated showers and thunderstorms after 3pm. Areas of smoke after 7am. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 82. Light west wind becoming west southwest 6 to 11 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Tonight: Isolated showers and thunderstorms before 9pm. Areas of smoke. Partly cloudy, with a low around 58. West northwest wind 5 to 9 mph becoming light and variable. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 79. North northeast wind 5 to 8 mph.
Monday Night: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1am. Increasing clouds, with a low around 60. North northeast wind 6 to 10 mph becoming east southeast after midnight. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Tuesday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 79. Southeast wind 11 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 85.
Saturday’s High in Atlantic was 84 and the low was 60. This day last year the high was 79 and the low was 69. The all-time record high on this date in Atlantic, was 109 set in 1936. The record low was 45 in 1906. Sunrise was at 5:59 a.m.; Sunset is at 8:51.
The Iowa DNR has issued an Air Quality Alert for fine particulate pollution, which is in effect for all of Iowa Through
Noon Monday…
Smoke from wildfires in Alberta and British Columbia continues to sit across Iowa. Air quality is expected to improve statewide by Monday morning, with smoke clearing from north to south starting this (Sunday) evening through Monday morning.
The DNR recommends that people reduce long or intense activities, and take more breaks during outdoor activities until air quality conditions improve. The recommendation is especially pertinent to individuals with heart or lung disease, older adults, children and teenagers, and outdoor workers. People in these categories should consider rescheduling or moving outdoor activities indoors.
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