Iowans are being warned that spending too much time outdoors today could be dangerous, as an extreme heat warning is posted for Iowa’s southern half and western third. Forecasters say heat indices this afternoon may reach 110 to 115 degrees.
Meteorologist Cory Martin, at the National Weather Service, says parts of Iowa escaped the heat Thursday with cloud cover and rain.
“While it didn’t produce heavy rainfall that really cooled us down, what it did do is it left behind some cloud debris that helped keep the temperatures down a little bit,” Martin says. “But right now, for today, we’re looking at sunshine. It’s probably going to be a bit more likely, so we’re a bit more confident in the temperatures getting up a little higher today compared to yesterday.”
It’s a hot, steamy 81 miles from Tama-Toledo to Coralville on this next-to-last day of RAGBRAI, as thousands of bicycle riders near their final destination. Nick Pfeiffer is Coralville’s RAGBRAI publicity chairman and says the city has been working toward this day for months.
“A lot of preparation. A lot of planning,” Pfeiffer says. “We’ve been talking about all of our plans since January, and knowing that this is the 50th anniversary of RAGBRAI, we knew it was going to be large crowds and so we’re ready for it. We’re preparing for 50,000.”
Given the extreme heat, Pfeiffer says there will be multiple EMT teams available for riders. He notes, past experience with the week-long bike ride has helped.
“This is the sixth time Coralville has hosted, plus, we’ve assisted with Iowa City and North Liberty hosting, as well,” he says, “and that absolutely helped a lot, because it’s a lot of the same people that are helping, so we’ve got a lot of experience.”
Coralville is the last overnight stop on this year’s ride, which concludes tomorrow in Davenport on the banks of the Mississippi River.
(By George Dorman, KCCK, Cedar Rapids and Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)