Midwest Weekly Highlights - February 1-7, 2012

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Very Warm

The first week of February saw temperatures average 7°F to 17°F above normal with the biggest departures from normal in Minnesota (Figure 1). Temperatures were above normal each day across the region and minimum temperatures averaged 18°F to 20°F above normal in most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin (Figure 2). The seven-day period saw over 350 record high temperatures set without a single record low. Each of the nine states reported record highs in both minimum and maximum temperatures.
 

Dry in the North, Wet in the Southwest

Most of the upper Midwest received no precipitation in the first week of the month (Figure 3). In the southeast, totals were slightly below normal with pockets of above normal precipitation but the southwest part of the Midwest it was quite wet, with totals topping 2" in some locations, with totals representing four to five times the normal weekly precipitation total (Figure 4). Daily precipitation records were set at dozens of Missouri stations as well as some in Iowa and Illinois. Much of the precipitation in southwest Iowa and south central Iowa fell as snow on the 4th and 5th. Totals of between 6" and 9" were common (Figure 5) with Little Sioux, Iowa (Harrison County) topping the charts at 11.9". The precipitation fell to the south of the drought affected areas in Iowa and did little to change the US Drought Monitor depiction (Figure 6) compared to the previous week.
 

Thin Ice in Iowa

The warm temperatures has ice on Iowa lakes thinner than normal for this time of year. The thin ice led to a fatality on the 1st as a man drowned after falling through the ice on George Wyth Lake. The fatality came just days after two people died after falling through the ice on another lake in Iowa on January 30th.
 

-MST-
The Iowa Climatology Bureau also contributed to this report.