***Official 2023 Weather Thread***
- Thread starter wxman1
- Start date
2013 was extremely dry also. I'm in Des Moines and this year doesn't even compare at all to those 2 years. If I remember right it was over 100 for 2 or 3 weeks straight in July in 2012.
We were dry in the north for 2012 then the rain wouldn’t quit come April and May for 2013.
The humidity is what I find interesting, this is Iowa. Today and tomorrow mid afternoon less than 50%. Isnt it normally 80-90%? The light winds that are predicted is the only good thing I see in conserving the moisture already in the ground.
2012 was horribly dry but 2013 was one of the wettest springs on record in central Iowa. Nonstop rain in April, a snowstorm first week of May, followed by an 8 inch rain event that flooded things. Finished planting corn in June that year. The rain all spring followed with a summer that never fully dried out and a big wind event Labor Day weekend (night of ISU game) made for the worst year of farming of my life.
Second half of 2011 was very dry and set the table for how dry 2012 was going to be.
Are you sure you're not thinking of 2011? If it was extremely wet that spring and summer it all dried up by that October.
I use Google Earth to find fishing spots and their imagery from both 9-14-12 and 9-30-2013 shows the ponds and rivers in Des Moines extremely dry and lower than normal.
Look at the dew points. Humidity is, well, relative to the temperature. You could have the same dew point of 50, but 90% RH in the morning and 40% in the afternoon due to temperature change.
My opinion is dew points below 60 are generally comfortable.
60-70 getting sticky.
Above 70 is pretty oppressive.
One time in Key West the dew point was 80. That was something else to experience.
Yes I’m sure. Have the farm and insurance documentation on all of it. Ask anyone that farms what they thought of 2013 and you will get the same answer.
Yep, Memorial Day weekend was 8" in 48 hours. Buried my truck in mud 2 weeks later as fields still had not dried out. I still have PTSD from 2013.
Yep, although 2013 was very wet till mid June, then it just shut off. In some ways, 2013 was worse than 2012 in some areas of the state.
2013 was the worst year ever. As long as any of our farm records went (100+ years) we never had a time when we had to walk away from a field and not plant it and take prevent plant, until then. I never want to see that type of year ever again. I would drive to the farm thinking I could mud in a few acres and it would start raining by the time I got there. Then rain again as soon as it dried enough not to accumulate mud on the planter.
I ran 36 hours straight finish planting that year and did the last 5-10 acres in the rain but didn’t care.
The amount of PP cover crops up in your part of the world and up into southern Minnesota was insane. My ex in laws in Mower county took PP on 60 percent of their acres and the 40 percent went to late planted sweet corn for Seneca.
I still get anxiety just thinking of that year.
We all do!! Then to put a top on it 100 mph winds Labor Day weekend that blew down corn with poor root structures!! Took 9 days to combine a 180 acre field that insurance wouldn’t let me destroy that was perfectly flat. And to make it even more fun it got down to below zero very early which meant combine and tractors having to run at least every hour 24 hours a day to prevent gelling. Spent three straight nights sleeping in the field with an alarm to get out and start equipment and let it run for an hour.
Got power back last night. Almost 3 days. Time to invest in my own generator and transfer switch for the house.