(Radio Iowa) – Two-thirds of Iowa counties are considered to be abnormally dry or in some stage of drought, with far northwest Iowa the driest of all. State Climatologist Justin Glisan says that makes this month’s snowfall particularly welcome. “We had precipitation deficits starting to stack up in western Iowa, especially west central Iowa, going back last fall and then drying creeping into much of western Iowa moving into April, May and especially June, where we saw drought conditions expand across western Iowa,” Glisan says.
The lack of adequate subsoil moisture is a remarkable turn-around after recording flooding just a couple of years ago in several areas. “2018 was the second-wettest year on record. 2019 was the 12th wettest year on record,” Glisan says. “You put those two years together — the wettest two-year stretch for the state of Iowa going back 148 years.” Having snow drifts stick around for a while would be a good thing, according to Glisan, because it may help replenish moisture levels. “But of course drier soils freeze faster and they’ll freeze deeper,” Glisan says, “so we don’t want a really deep freeze in the subsoil because that will act like a concrete layer, no water infiltration getting into that deeper soil.”
The National Weather Service forecasts indicate more than half a foot of snow may fall in some areas of the state today (Tuesday).
(Radio Iowa) – Iowans are invited to an online webinar on winter weather tonight (Monday) being hosted by the National Weather Service office in Johnston. Meteorologist Alex Krull says they’re constantly recruiting weather spotters to help be the eyes and ears for forecasters. “We’ll talk about how we forecast different types of winter precipitation and how we officially report that then to the National Weather Service,” Krull says. “That includes how to properly take a snowfall measurement, if you have any ice on trees or power lines, how you can take a picture and officially report that to the National Weather Service and to be able to identify differences between things like snow, sleet and graupel.”
You don’t know what graupel is? Graupel is considered a soft hail or small snow pellets. Spotter training sessions were cancelled earlier this year due to the pandemic and Krull says these webinars are a good alternative for now. “There are plans to host more online virtual severe weather spotter training sessions come this springtime,” Krull says. “At this time, it doesn’t quite look like we’ll be able to have in-person meetings again, come springtime.”
The webinar is free and runs from 7 to 8 PM. Register to take part here: www.weather.gov/dmx
Clarinda Police Chief Keith Brothers says with a potential winter storm approaching our area Friday night through Saturday morning, the Clarinda Police Department would like to remind the citizens of Clarinda about the snow ordinance. 
The ordinance says “No person shall park any motor vehicle or other apparatus upon any street of the city that will obstruct the removal of snow when there has been an accumulation of two (2) inches or more. Any vehicle left parked on any street in violation of this ordinance may be impounded, and the registered owner of the vehicle will be subject to a $30 parking fine, and payment of all applicable towing and storage fees before the vehicle is released.”
Chief Brothers says the parking ban remains in effect until the snow ceases to fall and the streets have been plowed from curb to curb.
(Radio Iowa) – For Iowans who long to watch the fascinating swirls of green and purple waves of light in the sky, tonight (Wednesday) will likely be your best opportunity. 
A powerful solar flare is expected to push the famed Northern Lights further south into Iowa for a rare view. Meteorologist Andy Ervin, at the National Weather Service bureau in Davenport, says a storm front is forecast to arrive tomorrow (Thursday).
Locations from Washington state to Maine may be seeing the lights each of the next three nights, but clouds are expected over Iowa both Thursday and Friday nights. Ervin says if you can carve out a little time tonight to gaze skyward at the celestial spectacle, do.
A longtime Quad Cities resident, Ervin says he’s seen the Northern Lights before.
The Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado says the geomagnetic storm will peak late tonight into early Thursday. The solar flare was recorded on Monday.
(Radio Iowa/KJAN) – State Climatologist Justin Glisan says preliminary data shows a statewide average of two inches of precipitation fell in Iowa last month. While that’s exactly what’s average for November, Glisan says precipitation amounts were far below average in northwest Iowa. “We saw precipitation departures of anywhere from one to two inches,” Glisan says. That means some areas of northwest Iowa, where there are drought conditions, recorded little, if any precipitation last month. On the flip side, south central and south east Iowa were much wetter.
“We kind of had the storm track locked on that part of the state,” he says. “That’s where we saw the largest positive departures, anywhere from 1.5 to 2 inches.” That means some pockets of southern Iowa had twice as much rain as average. Glisan says due to a lack of precipitation over the past three to six months, a few counties in northwest iowa are in extreme drought.
“You can kind of cut Iowa in half, typically right down I-35. Anywhere east of that we’re above average precipitation wise and anywhere west of that we’re below average and that’s where we see…abnormally dry conditions all the way to the extreme drought conditions up in that northwest corner.”
Weather during the month of November here in Atlantic, was warmer and drier than normal. Data compiled at the KJAN studios (The OFFICIAL National Weather Service reporting/record keeping site for Atlantic), show the Average High for the month was 56 (55.8), which was a full 10-degrees above normal. The Average Low was 27.3, which is nearly one-tenth of a degree above normal. Rain and melted snowfall for the month amounted to 1.76 inches, which is nearly one-tenth of an inch below average. Snowfall amounted to just one-half of an inch.
During the month of December, in Atlantic, the Average High is 32.9-degrees, the Average Low is 14.4, and rain/melted snow typically amounts to 1.11-inches. Check the Weather Page Jan. 1st, to see how our stats this month compare to the records.
Based on astronomy, winter starts on December 21st, but based on climatology and meteorology, December 1st is the first day of winter. Glison says that means the drought conditions are likely to persist. “Drier soils will freeze faster and they’ll freeze deeper,” Glisan says. “If we get into a cold period in which we dip below freezing for a good amount of time and the soils freeze, any precipitation in the form of rain or snowfall getting into a melt period will not infiltrate into that soil very deep, if at all.” The other factor is subsoil moisture is depleted, especially in western Iowa. Temperatures in Iowa averaged five degrees above normal for the month of November.
“Typically when we do see warmer temperatures along with these windy days that we’ve had, especially in November, that produces atmospheric demand for water vapor,” Glisan says. And that exacerbated evaporation of what moisture there had been in the soil. Glisan says the short term outlook is for warmer and drier than normal conditions in December for the western three quarters of the United States.
Weather during the month of November, here in Atlantic, was warmer and drier than normal. Data compiled at the KJAN studios (The OFFICIAL National Weather Service reporting/record keeping site for Atlantic), show the Average High for the month was 56 (55.8), which was a full 10-degrees above normal. The Average Low was 27.3, which is nearly one-tenth of a degree above normal. Rain and melted snowfall for the month amounted to 1.76 inches, which is nearly one-tenth of an inch below average. Snowfall amounted to just one-half of an inch.
During the month of December, in Atlantic, the Average High is 32.9-degrees, the Average Low is 14.4, and rain/melted snow typically amounts to 1.11-inches. Check the Weather Page Jan. 1st, to see how our stats this month compare to the records.
(Radio Iowa) – While there have been scattered showers, parts of Iowa have had very little rain since mid-summer and the continued dry weather is drawing down soil moisture levels. State climatologist Justin Glisan says while drought conditions are lessening in some areas, they’re worsening elsewhere, as much of Iowa’s western third is now in moderate to severe drought. “Subsoil conditions across much of the region show a below-normal percentile,” Glisan says. “Recent warm and windy days produced higher evaporate demand in the atmosphere, so the atmosphere is thirsty, especially for this time of year, those conditions allow for extraction of any subsoil moisture or surface moisture that we see.”
We’re heading into a drier time of year, so Glisan says it will be difficult to recharge soil moisture levels before spring. “With a lack of precipitation, this makes rainfall infiltration when we do get it harder to get down deep,” he says. Glisan says that lack of soil moisture may bring some help to Iowa’s farmers in the spring. “The silver lining here is that moving into the growing season, drier-than-normal conditions will make field work and planting easier,” Glisan says. “If you go back, the last two or three years, we’ve had pretty wet conditions going into the growing season with record subsoil moisture which delayed planting.”
Conditions could change within a matter of several weeks, as Glisan says the trends point to above-normal precipitation for January through March.
(Radio Iowa) – Forecasters say drought conditions that spread across much of Iowa earlier this year will likely linger well into winter. Meteorologist Dennis Todey, director of the U-S-D-A’s Midwest Climate Hub — based in Ames, says it doesn’t appear there will be many chances to replenish moisture levels in the soil before things begin to freeze up. “We had a very dry end of summer and end to fall,” Todey says. “It’s been great for harvest but not good for soil moisture recharge. By this point, it’s very unlikely we’ll get the soil moisture recharged to where we want it to be.”
Despite a warming trend in Iowa this week, Todey says winter will be here in a little over a month. “Our soils are going to go in pretty dry and when the cold does come, we will freeze up and we’re not going to have much chance to recharge soil moisture at that rate,” he says. The drier conditions typically mean a quicker start to the planting season in the new year. “When spring comes around and we do thaw and we want to get to ag activity, there’s a better chance of being able to get moving earlier,” Todey says.
“Downside is that we’ve got some fairly dry soils that we’re going to need to put some moisture in. That’s my bigger concern with this whole situation, these dry soils that we have going on into winter and into the early spring.” Todey says another danger with dry soils is that frost can get much deeper and cause damage to pipes and plants.
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