The featured chart presents an hourly climatology of temperature, heat index, and humidity (mixing ratio) in July for Ames along with the observations from Monday. The mixing ratio is a measure of the amount of water within a unit mass of dry air. The top chart shows average mixing ratios in the 12-14 range, whereas observations on Monday were in the 19-24 range (blue line). Notice what happens in the last afternoon around 6 PM. While the air temperature was flat for the afternoon, humidity levels kept rising and pushed the heat index well above 110 degrees. This effect was probably heavily influenced by all of the corn transpiring water throughout the day. The hot and muggy weather will continue today.

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Tags:   jul11