Midwest Weekly Highlights - July 10 - 17, 2007

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Overview ...

While the High Plains was roasting under a ridge of high pressure, the Midwest was at or below normal temperatures for the time period of July 10 - 17 (Figure 1). This cooler weather was especially beneficial to reproductive crops, but timely precipitation is turning out to be the real concern.

Much needed rain fell across portions of Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin, but missed many of the drought stricken areas of Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Ohio (Figure 2). This resulted in some deterioration and expansion of the drought characterization in the Midwest (Figure 3). For some areas of Iowa and Minnesota, precipitation for the month is still below a tenth of an inch (Figure 4) - Emmetsburg, IA (Palo Alto County) has only reported 0.02 inches and Pipestone, MN (Pipestone County) is just at 0.05 inches. In Kentucky, scattered rains helped crop and pasture conditions to remain stable, but the majority of the state is still in moderate to extreme drought. Topsoil moisture and subsoil moisture conditions both worsened to where 65% of the state topsoil and 76% of the subsoil is very short or short. In Ohio, no area of the state is reporting a surplus of topsoil moisture and almost 80% is at very short or short. Across Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, USDA reports show 20 to 30 percent of the corn and soybeans as rated very poor to poor. For Missouri, surplus moisture exists in areas affected by earlier flooding, but the northern and eastern regions are rapidly drying.
 

Wild Winds

Strong non-thunderstorm related winds struck areas of Minnesota and Michigan on Tuesday, July 10th and Wednesday, July 11th. They occurred with the passage of deep low pressure system and strong cold front (Figure 5) that brought upper level winds down to the surface. According to the July 13th commentary of Minnesota Weather Talk, these especially fierce winds downed power lines and uprooted trees across the area. Duluth reported winds up to 60 miles per hour on July 10th and International Falls had winds of 62 mph the 11th. In Michigan, Houghton reported winds of 59 miles per hour and thousands were without power from Copper Harbor to Ontonagon to Rockland. Gale warnings were issued for over western Lake Superior. Following the system passage, cool Canadian air poured in bringing record low temperatures to the area.
 

Wild Storms

Severe weather struck Iowa on Monday, July 16th when a weak warm front pushed across the region late in the afternoon. There were numerous storm reports of damaging winds, large hail and tornadoes throughout the north and eastern portions of the state. In Washington County, south of Iowa City, an EF-1 tornado struck the east side of Washington just before 6:00 pm CDT. The service building of a car dealership was destroyed and there were reports of cars and trucks being briefly lifted and dropped. Luckily, no injuries were reported. Non-tornadic winds also struck other areas of Iowa. In Emmet County, 70-80 mile per hour winds resulted in flattened corn fields, downed trees and power lines, blocked roads and structural damage. In addition to winds of approximately 60 miles per Black Hawk County, the towns of Janesville and Hudson were also pelted by grapefruit sized hail 4.25 inches in diameter. Dozens of other smaller hail reports were also recorded.
 

Daily Records during July 10-17

Date	Location	Record Type	New Record	Old Record & Year
July 13	Dubuque, IA	Low Min	49°	51°/1975
	International Falls, MN	Low Min	39°	41°/1950
July 14	Youngstown, OH	Low Min	49°	50°/2001
July 16	International Falls, MN	Low Min	40°	41°/1979
	Mansfield, OH	Low Min	52°	52°/1967
	Youngstown, OH	Low Min	48°	48°/1966
July 18	West Plains, MO	Precip	2.22"	0.91"/1958

MCP