American Association of State Climatologists

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Iowa August 2010...

IOWA PRELIMINARY MONTHLY WEATHER SUMMARY – AUGUST 2010 General Summary. August temperatures averaged 75.2º or 3.9º above normal...

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IOWA

Iowa State Climatologist's Office

Iowa Dept. of Agriculture and Land Stewardship
Wallace State Office Bldg.
Des Moines, IA 50319
515-281-8981

Harry Hillaker

To visit the Iowa State Climatologist's Office webpage click here.

History:

The State Climatologist Office (Iowa SC) is a bureau of the Iowa Dept. of Agriculture & Land Stewardship. The State Climatologist is appointed by the Iowa Secretary of Agriculture (an elected state official). The Iowa SC office was founded in Iowa City at the University of Iowa on October 1, 1875 and was initially known as the Iowa Weather Service. In 1890 the Iowa Weather Service operations were moved to Des Moines and came under the supervision of the Iowa Weather & Crop Service. At this same time its extensive statewide weather observation network was absorbed into the new U. S. Weather Bureau (now National Weather Service) cooperative observer network. The Iowa SC was co-located with the National Weather Service from 1890 until 2003 and has worked very closely with that agency since its inception. Finally, the Iowa SC was made a division of the newly created Iowa Department of Agriculture in 1923. The office operates under the authority of paragraphs 4, 5 and 6 of Chapter 159.5 of the Code of Iowa. Regular funding comes from a State appropriation of about $100,000 annually.

Information Services:

The Iowa State Climate office maintains archives of daily NWS co-op and first order station data back to the beginning of records. This would include the regular NCDC reports such as Iowa Climatological Data, Local Climatological Data, Hourly Precipitation Data and Storm Data, as well as the original observations. Access to a multitude of federal, state and private weather and climate data archives are also maintained. The office is normally open from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays to answer weather and climate related inquiries. With 133 years of continuous operation the Iowa SC Office has an unusually large archive of original federal and state books, reports and manuscripts from the 19th and early 20th Century.

Research:

The Iowa SC office primarily is involved with the acquisition, processing, dissemination and archiving of weather and climate data. However, research activities are performed as funding permits and have been conducted in cooperation with agencies such as the National Climatic Data Center (NWS co-op network metadata), the Midwestern Regional Climate Center (pre-1948 data keying project), the National Science Foundation (crop-hail climatology), U. S. Army Corps of Engineers (evaporation, snow, short-duration precipitation studies) and the Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources (development of more timely temperature data resources).

Outreach:

The office maintains very open communication with the news media, averaging about 500 news media contacts per year. This, combined with preparation of Public Information Statements issued in cooperation with the National Weather Service, and weekly and monthly crop-weather summaries prepared for the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service provides very wide dissemination of climate products and information. Nearly every major branch of State government utilizes the Iowa SC Office data on a regular basis. The State Climatologist makes climate-related presentations to civic, professional and school groups as resources allow.

The office also prepares regular monthly climate reports, the Preliminary Iowa Monthly Weather Summary and the Iowa Climate Review. The Preliminary Monthly Weather Summary is issued within the first few work days of each month and provides a brief summary of Iowa's weather conditions for the previous month. This report is available on-line and is also sent free of charge via regular mail. The Iowa Climate Review is a monthly report containing daily data for all official Iowa weather stations and is available by subscription. The Climate Review report is not currently made available on-line; however, the raw data are provided to Iowa State University's Iowa Environmental Mesonet web site and made available at that site after publication of each month's report.

The Iowa State Climate Office works closely with the National Weather Service in monitoring the co-op and ASOS data networks so as to improve the quantity, quality and timeliness of Iowa climate observations.

Monitoring and Impact Assessments:

The Iowa State Climate Office is a member of the Governor's Drought Task Force and Flood Task Force. The office provides regular updates of monthly temperature and precipitation data to the USDA Farm Service Agency for their use in evaluating county-by-county eligibility for disaster relief programs. The office also assists the Iowa Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division in their operations and occasionally provides guidance for county and regional emergency response offices. The office also provides near real-time rain event maps for the Iowa Dept. of Transportation for their use in evaluating where roadways may be in need of detailed examination of possible flood damage.