National Weather Service Des Moines, based in Johnston, Iowa, United States, [1] is a weather forecast office serving the greater Des Moines, Iowa, region [2] as part of the National Weather Service.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploration, and managing fishing and protection of marine mammals and endangered species in the US exclusive economic zone. The agency is part of the United States Department of Commerce and is headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland.
The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the purposes of protection, safety, and general information. It is a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) branch of the Department of Commerce, and is headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, within the Washington metropolitan area. The agency was known as the United States Weather Bureau from 1891 until it adopted its current name in 1970.
NOAA Weather Radio (NWR), also known as NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards, is an automated 24-hour network of VHF FM weather radio stations in the United States which broadcast weather information directly from a nearby National Weather Service office. Its routine programming cycle includes local or regional weather forecasts, synopsis, climate summaries or zone/lake/coastal waters forecasts, and can be shortened to specifically include hazardous weather outlooks, short-term forecasts, special weather statements or tropical weather summaries during Hazardous Weather events. It occasionally broadcasts other non-weather related events such as national security statements, natural disaster information, environmental and public safety statements such as AMBER Alerts, civil emergencies, fires, evacuation orders, and other hazards sourced from the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Emergency Alert System. NOAA Weather Radio uses automated broadcast technology that allows for the recycling of segments featured in one broadcast cycle into another and for consistent regular updating of segments to each of the transmitters.
In meteorology, a heat burst is a rare atmospheric phenomenon characterized by a sudden, localized increase in air temperature near the Earth's surface. Heat bursts typically occur during night-time and are associated with decaying thunderstorms. They are also characterized by extremely dry air and are sometimes associated with very strong, even damaging, winds.
A tornado emergency is an enhanced version of a tornado warning, which is used by the National Weather Service (NWS) in the United States during imminent, significant tornado occurrences in highly populated areas. Although it is not a new warning type from the NWS, issued instead within a severe weather statement or in the initial tornado warning, a tornado emergency generally means that significant, widespread damage is expected to occur and a high likelihood of numerous fatalities is expected with a large, strong to violent tornado.
National Weather Service Chicago, currently based in Romeoville, Illinois, is a weather forecast office responsible for monitoring weather conditions for 23 counties in Northern Illinois, the Chicago metropolitan area and Northwest Indiana. The Army Signal Service established the first federal weather office in the region in Chicago on October 15, 1870. During May 1894 the Chicago Weather Bureau was given a new forecast area extending from the Great Lakes region all the way to the Rocky Mountains. The current National Weather Service Chicago is located in Romeoville and is in charge of issuing local forecasts and weather warnings for the Chicago area. It is one of only two National Weather Service offices in Illinois, the other being National Weather Service Central Illinois in Lincoln, Illinois. The National Weather Service Chicago forecast office is located adjacent to the Lewis University Airport in Romeoville, Illinois.
The December 17–22, 2012 North American blizzard was a winter storm that affected the Midwestern and Eastern United States. Forming on December 17, the winter storm moved across the midwest, forcing schools to close throughout the region. Numerous warnings and advisories had been posted by the National Weather Service for many states, including Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Both O'Hare International Airport and Midway International Airport in Chicago, Illinois canceled most departures and arrivals. According to flight tracking website FlightStats.com, more than 1,000 flights were canceled across the region. More than 130,000 customers were without power across the west and midwest.
The tornado outbreak of June 16–18, 2014, was a tornado outbreak concentrated in the Great Plains and the Midwestern United States. Two tornadoes also occurred in Ontario. The severe weather event most significantly affected the state of Nebraska, where twin EF4 tornadoes killed two and critically injured twenty others in and around the town of Pilger on the evening of June 16. The two Pilger tornadoes were part of a violent tornado family that produced four EF4 tornadoes and was broadcast live on television. The outbreak went on to produce multiple other strong tornadoes across the northern Great Plains states throughout the next two days.
A deadly tornado outbreak severely impacted the Southern United States, and also affected Iowa and Nebraska to a lesser extent, between November 27–30, 2016. The strongest tornadoes of the event affected Alabama and Tennessee during the late evening of November 29 and into the early morning hours of November 30. Overall, this outbreak produced 48 tornadoes, killed six people, and injured many others.
The Hurricane Dorian–Alabama controversy, also referred to as Sharpiegate, arose from a comment made by then-U.S. President Donald Trump on September 1, 2019, as Hurricane Dorian approached the U.S. mainland. Mentioning states that would likely be hit by the storm, he incorrectly included Alabama, which by then was known to not be threatened by the storm. After many Alabamans called the local weather bureau to ask about it, the bureau issued a reassurance that their state was not expected to be hit.
An intense derecho affected much of the Midwestern United States on August 10–11, 2020, primarily eastern Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana. It caused high winds and spawned an outbreak of weak tornadoes. Some areas reported torrential rain and large hail.
National Weather Service Quad Cities is a National Weather Service weather forecast office based in Davenport, Iowa. It is tasked with providing weather and emergency information to 21 counties in east-central and southeast Iowa, 13 counties in northwest and west-central Illinois, and two counties in extreme northeast Missouri.
On December 15, 2021, a rapidly-deepening low-pressure area contributed to a historic expanse of inclement weather across the Great Plains and Midwestern United States, resulting in an unprecedented December derecho and tornado outbreak across portions of the Northern United States, a region normally affected by snow and cold weather during this time of year. Non-thunderstorm winds spurred the formation of rapidly-moving fires across Colorado and western Kansas, with attendant dust and debris spreading eastward. From central Kansas northeastward into eastern Wisconsin, the powerful derecho led to hundreds of damaging wind reports. At least 57 hurricane-force wind reports were received by the National Weather Service, signaling the most prolific wind event in the United States dating back to at least 2004. Numerous embedded circulations within this rapidly-progressing derecho produced dozens of tornadoes, including 33 that were rated EF2. The culmination of non-thunderstorm, thunderstorm, and tornadic winds caused widespread damage to structures, trees, power lines, and vehicles across the Plains and Midwest. At least 600,000 people lost power on December 15, and temperatures dropped significantly across the affected region following the event, causing accumulating snow, which hindered cleanup and recovery efforts. The storm killed at least 5 people directly, as well as 2 people indirectly through wildfires partly spawned by the storm, and caused at least $1.8 billion in damages. The number of tornadoes in this event broke a record for largest outbreak in the month of December that had been set less than a week prior. The event also became one of the largest single-day outbreaks in recorded history, with 120 tornadoes occurring over an eight-hour period.