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KCRG TV9 First Alert Forecast For Dubuque and the Tri-States

KCRG Weather Blog

Fall foliage report: Northeastern Iowa peaks soon

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources expects fall foliage to hit its peak around this weekend across much of northern and central Iowa. In northeastern Iowa, maples and oaks are reported as turning to their fall colors. The aspen trees there are quite yellow. A bit farther south, many trees are showcasing more color than last week. Sumac and ivy are colorful there, too. Southern Iowa’s fall foliage is lagging behind the rest of the state, as is common. Peak there is expected to happen later this month. You can read the DNR’s report here.

Comparing this year’s time between spring and fall freezes

Much of the area had the first freeze of the season this past weekend, dropping to 32 degrees or colder. While you may have been thinking “this already?” it turns out our time between the last spring freeze and the first fall freeze was not any shorter than usual. Cedar Rapids’ last freeze this past spring fell on April 28, and the first freeze of fall was October 12. 166 days fell between freezes, and the average is 165 days. The biggest gap between spring freeze and fall freeze was 207 days from April 13 to November 7, 1900. The shortest period was 119 days from May 21 to September 18, 1929. Dubuque’s freeze gap this year is the same as Cedar Rapids at 166 days; the average is 163 days. The most was 208 days from April 12 to November 7, 1900. The fewest was 132 days from May 21 to October 1, 1883. Iowa City went 166 days between freezes, the same as Cedar Rapids and Dubuque. The average there is 177 days. At the airport, the biggest gap was 212 days, from April 12 to November 11, 2016; the shortest was 114 days from May 21 to October 13, 2002. The longer-term climate site on the southeast side of town went 225 days from March 24 to November 5, 1998. The shortest was 122 days from May 18 to September 18, 1916. Waterloo had 161 days between freezes from May 3 to October 12, above the average of 154 days. The most was 186 days, which happened twice: May 3 to November 6, 1940 and April 21 to October 25, 1914. The fewest was just 110 days, From May 23 to September 11, 1917.

What is wind chill?

The wind chill is simply how we, as humans, perceive the temperature to be or the feels-like temperature. It’s based on how much heat is lost from the exposed skin, caused by cold temperatures and windy conditions. For wind chill to go into effect, temperatures must be at or below 50 degrees and winds must be above 3 mph. Your skin naturally radiates heat, if a cold breeze brushes against your skin, the cold air will start to decrease the skin temperature. If you stay outside too long, that could start to lower your internal body temperature. This is what leads to frostbite. It’s always good to prepare when extremely cold temperatures are in the forecast. Remember to protect your pets and take precautions so your pipes don’t freeze. Fill up your gas tank, just in case you would need to stay in your car for an extended amount of time and always dress appropriately.

Nearly all Octobers have wind chills in the 20s

Cold air is not uncommon for October, especially these sharp cold blasts. They happen more often than you may think and in 95% of years, wind chills get as low as the middle 20s in October! In any given October, there’s about an 80% chance of our area having at least one hour of wind chills around 20 degrees. There’s only about a 30% chance of mid-10s wind chills. The coldest October wind chill on record in Cedar Rapids was set back in 1993 when it hit 6!

Beyond the Weather: Name a moon

Have you ever wanted to name a planetary object? Wouldn’t it be a great story to tell that you named a new moon? Now you have that chance. From now through December 6th, there is a contest to name the 20 recently discovered moons of Saturn. There are some rules as to what can be submitted for names, so you can’t just name one after your favorite meteorologist! All the information can be found at this link. Or, you can watch a video about the naming process here. Happy stargazing!