Weather
Wind, heat, cold…Iowa has it all
Wind turbines stand over a farm near Alta. Iowa's geography and climate make it ideal for producing wind energy. Iowa is now second in the nation in wind energy capacity / AP photo
By Misti Huedepohl
Iowa.com
Iowa’s geography gives us a variety of weather conditions from extreme heat and cold to tornadoes and snowfall. Winds blow strong and steady across Iowa and its relatively flat terrain make it an ideal location for wind-generated energy. In fact, Iowa is now second in the nation for wind energy capacity.
The state is considered a temperate climate as it experiences four distinct seasons of weather. The average temperature is 49°F (9°C). The state averages 166 days of full sunshine and 199 days of cloudy or partly cloudy days.
Des Moines, located in central Iowa, has a normal daily maximum temperature of 86° F (30°C) in July and a normal daily minimum of 10°F (-4°C) in January. The southwest part of the Iowa tends to be slightly warmer than this while the northeast part tends to be slightly cooler.
Springs are generally wet with 85 percent of the 45-65 thunderstorms Iowa experiences annually occurring between April and September. Because of the rivers’ tributaries dissecting the state, excessive snowfall in the winter prior followed by excessive rainfall in the spring resulted in flooding in June 2008, which caused catastrophic damage in many communities, especially Cedar Rapids where nearly 1,200 city blocks were flooded and over 25,000 people were forced to leave their homes. Precipitation for the year averages around 34 inches.
Summers are warm and humid and severe weather may occur. Around 46 tornados occur in a year particularly in the months of May and June. In May 2008, the National Weather Service reported an EF5 tornado struck Parkersburg, Aplington, New Hartford, Waterloo and Dunkerton. The tornado, about a mile wide, caused severe devastation, killed seven people and injured dozens.
Occasionally Iowa experiences Indian Summer, a period when a mild warm period occurs after a killing freeze and shortly before winter arrives. Seasonal snowfall averages 32 inches and the snow season ranges from mid-October to mid-April.
Source: NOAA National Weather Service Regional Office.
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July 11th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
The energy from these things doesn’t stay here. It doesn’t make sense to put them up in Iowa and ship the energy to CA and other states. There are more and more stories about gearbox failure, fires, collapses, etc. Another problem is that the wind doesn’t blow all the time; since these are considered an expansion of the grid, they have to have the power ready to back them up when the wind doesn’t blow – which means burning more fossil fuel “just in case”.
April 10th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Nice Blog Template I like the look of it definitely Build Wind Generator.
March 15th, 2009 at 1:24 am
“Des Moines, located in central Iowa, has a normal daily maximum temperature of 86° F (30°C) in July and a normal daily minimum of 10°F (-4°C) in January”
Can you guess which extreme would cause us to burn more fossil fuel?
The recommended setting for the thermostat in winter is 68. The recommended setting in summer is 78. The larger the temperature difference, the more CO2 will be produced. Also, in the winter we produce more CO2 by having to clear vast numbers of parkinglots, runways, city streets, rural roads, highways and interstates every time it snows. It would seem global warming would help us reduce CO2 emissions and solve the CO2 problem (if there is an correlation to begin with)