October COOP Data Uploaded
3519 ViewsThe quality controlled Iowa COOP data for October 2014 has been
uploaded to the IEM. These observations are kindly provided by Harry
Hillaker, our state climatologist, who passes along these notes on the
month:
General Summary. Temperatures averaged 51.1° or 0.3° above normal while precipitation totaled 3.20 inches or 0.59 inches above normal. This ranks as the 63rd coolest and 36th wettest October among 142 years of records.
Temperatures. The statewide average temperature was above normal for only the second month this year (June was the other). Cooler than usual weather dominated much of the first twelve days of the month but was followed by an extended period of milder weather with above normal temperatures prevailing on all but one day from the 13th through the 28th. Temperatures reached 80° at Sioux City on the 1st and at Lowden on the 27th while the warmest weather came on the 26th when Sidney reached 85°. There were frequent episodes of freezing weather during the month but the first widespread hard freeze came on the morning of the 11th when Elkader, Mason City and Sheldon reported morning lows of 25°. Similar readings also occurred on the morning of the 30th while the first nearly statewide hard freeze (a handful of locations along the Mississippi River did not record a freeze during October) came on the last day of the month with morning lows down to 19° at Primghar, Rock Rapids and Sheldon. Finally, Spencer Airport recorded the lowest temperature of the month at midnight at the end of the 31st with a reading of 17°.
Precipitation. Widespread precipitation from September 30 into October 3 brought harvest activities to a halt across most of Iowa. Greatest rain totals from this event fell over southwest Iowa where Oakland recorded 4.40 inches while the least fell across the far northwest where Rock Rapids picked up only 0.31 inches. A second widespread rain event from the 12th through the 14th brought rain totals varying from just a trace at Estherville and Spencer to 4.61 inches at Pella. A very welcome period of much drier weather prevailed for the remainder of the month with the exception of some light to moderate rain on the 22nd-23rd. Monthly precipitation totals varied from 0.75 inches at Rock Rapids to 6.41 inches at Oakland. According to Iowa Agricultural Statistics the frequent early wet weather allowed only 9% of the soybean crop to be harvested by October 5, the lowest percentage completed by this date in over 30 years. However, the late month dryness finally allowed the soybean harvest to progress slightly ahead of the normal pace by November 2. Snow flurries were observed over portions of northern and eastern Iowa on the morning of the 4th. This was the earliest recorded snow in Iowa since 1999 but proved to be the only occurrence during the month.
Heating Degree Day Totals. Home heating requirements, as estimated by heating degree day totals, averaged 7% less than last October and 5% less than normal. Degree day totals so far this heating season (since July 1) are running 4% greater than one year ago but 4% less than normal.
The following is the number of new daily records set at COOP sites based on data back to 1951.
__________2014__________________________________
OCT SEP AUG JUL JUN MAY APR MAR FEB JAN
Maximum High: 97 25 25 4 27 79 118 24 26 79
Minimum High: 89 267 161 399 37 235 174 406 306 219
Maximum Low: 56 86 113 8 122 102 40 7 7 22
Minimum Low: 22 180 33 330 58 171 209 439 379 194
Maximum Precip: 149 176 182 134 342 92 187 29 91 36
The following is some bulk statistics on how well IEM's daily COOP data estimator is performing on a monthly basis versus this QC'd dataset.
___________2014_______________________________
OCT SEP AUG JUL JUN MAY APR MAR
High Temp Bias 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.4 1.3
High Temp RMSE 0.8 0.8 0.7 0.8 0.7 0.8 0.8 1.8
Low Temp Bias 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.2 2.1
Low Temp RMSE 0.9 0.9 0.8 1.0 0.8 0.9 1.0 2.4
Precip Bias 0.26 0.33 0.39 0.2 0.13 0.20 0.14 0.36
Precip RMSE 0.51 0.75 1.11 0.92 1.39 0.64 0.63 0.46