Alert archive / Iowa / Blizzard Watches in 2009

Blizzard Watch 1, NWS Des Moines, IA

January 11, 200944 counties in Iowa

NWS Des Moines, IA issued this blizzard watch at Jan 11, 2009, 3:57 AM CST for 44 counties in Iowa. It took effect at Jan 12, 2009, 12:00 PM CST. It was in force for .

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: Jan 11, 2009, 3:57 AM CST (09:57 UTC)
In effect from: Jan 12, 2009, 12:00 PM CST
Expired: Jan 12, 2009, 4:00 AM CST
In force
Issued by: NWS Des Moines, IA

All 44 counties

Appanoose County, IA, Audubon County, IA, Black Hawk County, IA, Boone County, IA, Bremer County, IA, Butler County, IA, Calhoun County, IA, Carroll County, IA, Cerro Gordo County, IA, Clarke County, IA, Crawford County, IA, Dallas County, IA, Davis County, IA, Emmet County, IA, Franklin County, IA, Greene County, IA, Grundy County, IA, Guthrie County, IA, Hamilton County, IA, Hancock County, IA, Hardin County, IA, Humboldt County, IA, Jasper County, IA, Kossuth County, IA, Lucas County, IA, Madison County, IA, Mahaska County, IA, Marion County, IA, Marshall County, IA, Monroe County, IA, Palo Alto County, IA, Pocahontas County, IA, Polk County, IA, Poweshiek County, IA, Sac County, IA, Story County, IA, Tama County, IA, Wapello County, IA, Warren County, IA, Wayne County, IA, Webster County, IA, Winnebago County, IA, Worth County, IA, Wright County, IA

The radar

The Des Moines radar (KDMX), 41 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 10:03 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

The nearest sounding before it

Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), launched 00:00Z, 10.0 hours before the alert went out and 307 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 1318 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 71 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 97 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this blizzard watch went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Des Moines, IA wrote its last area forecast discussion before this blizzard watch went out at Jan 10, 11:40 PM CST, 4 hours 17 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jan 10, 11:40 PM CST, 4 hours 17 minutes before

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Hazardous weather outlook, Jan 10, 4:03 PM CST, 11 hours 54 minutes before

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</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
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        Please try again in a few minutes.
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        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
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The office that day

Everything else NWS Des Moines, IA issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jan 11, 4:24 PM CST	Winter Weather Advisory	DMX	Adair, Adams, Appanoose, Audubon, Black Hawk, Boone and 45 more	31 hr

Nearby

Blizzard Watches in Iowa, 2009 Every blizzard watch in 2009

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.