Two months from today it Christmas, but who's counting? More important, we are into the last week of October and for you peepers, the fall color is reaching its peak. I can't say it's overly vivid where I live, but that might be partially due to the warm, dry fall. That said, there are a few hot looking trees, and it's a special time of year that doesn't last long, especially after a hard freeze like we saw Friday morning. Speaking of the cold Friday morning, If you didn't no

Some years it's early, others late, but the numbers show it is rare not to have a freeze by mid to late October. Thursday morning, everybody saw frost, but not everyone reached 32 or colder, as evidenced by this plot of overnight lows. Much of southeast Iowa and a bit of WC Illinois stayed in the range of 33-36. Several places in EC Iowa hit the 20s with the coldest in my area 27 in Monticello, Clinton, and Independence. Here's a little tighter perspective. Friday morning, te

That frisky storm system that's buffeted the Midwest with 3 days of high winds is finally pulling off to the northeast. In doing so, the tight pressure gradient it created is relaxing, allowing winds to decouple. That's going to make experiencing the outdoors a far more comfortable proposition the next few days. However, the price to pay will be a couple of cold frosty nights and in some areas, it will mark the end of this year's growing season. The NWS has upgraded the north

At 1:00 p.m. Tuesday in Dubuque, I'm looking out the window, and it's 46 degrees with a wind whipped shower. The wind was gusting to 38 mph, and the wind chill sat at 39 degrees. 18 days ago the high was 87 and as recently as 2 days ago it was 68. I think it is safe to say we have turned a corner. Summer is just a sweet memory now. Change of seasons! The wind driven change is due to an upper level low spinning over NC Wisconsin. At 500mb, it looks like this. That's an energe

For the last 4 months, the days have been steadily growing shorter. On top of that, the sun's rays are less direct, limiting solar insolation. While we haven't had to pay in a big way yet, we are well on our way to winter, and it's just a matter of time before the Arctic hounds begin to howl. The return of colder air is a key ingredient for winds and stronger storms. In fact, if the temperature was uniform over all the planet, there would be no wind. The larger the thermal gr