Northwest Iowa — It’s beginning to feel decidedly more like autumn than it has for the past few days, with temperatures cooling substantially from those we saw last week.
The 24-hour high of 64-degrees recorded Tuesday in Sheldon was exactly 20-degrees cooler than the 84-degree high recorded just one day earlier. Kyle Weisser is a Forecaster with the National Weather Service Office in Sioux Falls, and he says the drastic temperature change is due to shift in the Jetstream.
(As above) “We’ve finally shaken off that warmer air that was settled in. That was, kind of at least for those that wanted warmer air, a nice little end to the summer, I guess you could say. As we get into mid to later October it gets tougher and tougher to have those multiple days in a row of highs in the 70s, let alone 80s. But really, it’s just a little bit of a change in the Jetstream, it turned to the northwest a little bit which allowed some cooler air to be dragged southward.”
When we talked to Weisser on Tuesday afternoon, he told us the winds that are forecast for Wednesday will make a dangerous day for field fires.
(As above) “Tomorrow will be another one of those days that’s a little dangerous for field fires and burning. Strong winds again tomorrow, likely gusts up around 40, maybe even 45 mph as we get really late in the afternoon. And it’ll actually probably be a little bit dryer tomorrow than it was two days ago when we had those fires. So, definitely could see some issues with fires.”
Weisser says if you like cool fall weather you’ll really like what’s just around the corner.
(As above) “And then as we get further down the road, Thursday through roughly next Tuesday, conditions start getting a little cooler. We will se a little bump up on Saturday with some warner conditions, and it’s not impossible to maybe see some fire weather problems on Saturday, as well. But a lot of days we’re going to see some highs in the 50s, and then as we get to Sunday through next Tuesday, we’re going to start seeing highs more in the 40s, so some real fall-like conditions settling southward.”
Sadly, he says there is no major rainfall on the horizon.
(As above) “And, unfortunately, with all of that there’s very little, if any, chance of….at least any substantial precipitation. There might be some hit-and-miss showers here and there, but really not amounting to a whole lot. We were lucky to get what we got a couple of days ago, cuz we’re really not looking at much for the next five to ten days.”
The strong winds and dry conditions Weisser has forecast for Wednesday has prompted the National Weather Service to issue a Wind Advisory and a Fire Weather Warning effective through 7:00 Wednesday evening.
