A deepening low pressure system to our east and high pressure to our
west put Iowa right in the middle on Tuesday. Here is a listing of
peak wind gusts:
ID Network Site Gust[MPH] Min Dewpoint[F]
AMW ASOS Ames Airport 69 9
SBOI4 KCCI-TV United Community / Boone 66 17
SFDI4 KCCI-TV Fort Dodge 65 13
OOA AWOS Oskaloosa 63 12
SFAI4 KCCI-TV Farhamville 63 13
MIW ASOS Marshalltown 62 17
SCSI4 KCCI-TV Creston 61 11
SLMI4 KCCI-TV Latimer 61 18
RMCW RWIS Mason City 61 17
SPEI4 KCCI-TV Pella 60 12
SGRI4 KCCI-TV Grimes 60 15
I have included a minimum afternoon dew point reading as well. This
wind event was a part of a tropopause fold or sometimes called a
stratospheric intrusion. The referenced URL has a couple of images
provided by the NWS illustrating this event. You may want to know
what equivalent potential vorticity is before looking at the plot. :)
The low dew points are due to strong downward motion in the
atmosphere from very dry regions of the upper troposphere. Other
than dry air, ozone is also abundant at the surface during these
events. A cursory look at a few ozone plots confirms this.
Great stuff! :)