This is October 1st and September wrapped up being much warmer and drier than usual for Iowa. State climatologist Harry Hillaker says it won’t come as a big surprise to Iowans that we were generally lacking in rainfall and were also warmer than the norm for the month. “Temperatures ran a little bit more than 4-degrees above normal for the statewide average,” Hillaker says. “It was our warmest September since 2005. Rainfall averaged just shy of 2 inches. We normally have about 3-and-1/3 inches for the month of September, so, well below normal.”
Some parts of the state were fortunate to get several good downpours during the month, mostly in the southwest, while northern Iowa remains very dry, with some cities reporting only a half-inch of rain for the month. Hillaker says this warm and dry trend may continue well into October and beyond. “That’s probably the best guess,” he says. “If we look back at the record books, other years we had a relatively warm and dry late summer and early fall, it’s very often the fall season as a whole and sometimes even the winter following is generally on the warmer- and drier-than-usual side.”
He says there are always exceptions though, so the weeks and months ahead could go either way. Forecasters say there is a possibility for thunderstorms starting late tomorrow night into Saturday with much cooler temperatures this weekend.
(Reporting by Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)