Forecasters say a large section of Iowa’s southern half will see triple-digit high temperatures today and perhaps for the next few days. Sunday’s highs were in the hundreds for several cities, including Shenandoah and Des Moines at 104-degrees.
Meteorologist Jim Lee, at the National Weather Service, says an Excessive Heat Warning is in place for much of southwest and central Iowa. “It doesn’t look like we have any relief coming until about Wednesday night or so,” Lee says. “Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday will all be quite hot with highs near 100 each day yet again.”
Lee says the picture may change for the cooler, soon. “Wednesday night we’ll have a cold front come through the area, so for Thursday into the weekend, we will see cooler temperatures on the horizon,” Lee says, “but even then, we’re talking highs in the 85-to-90 range but it’ll feel positively autumnal after this week’s heat.”
Before you complain too much about the heat and humidity, consider the thousands of bicycling enthusiasts who are spending several hours of their days pedaling across Iowa on RAGBRAI this week — and then many of them will be camping outdoors every night in non-air-conditioned tents.
By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City