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Security Camera Captures Possible Meteor Thursday Evening
Courtesy the City of North Liberty
Story Created:
Dec 27, 2013 at 3:25 PM CST
Story Updated:
Dec 27, 2013 at 3:36 PM CST
NORTH LIBERTY, Iowa - People across the Midwest reported seeing a
bright fireball streak across the sky Thursday evening ... and it was
caught on camera in North Liberty.
The fireball, a possible
meteor, was spotted at about 5:40 p.m. Thursday. Reports indicated that
it was seen across many Midwestern states, including Iowa, Illinois,
Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, Nebraska and South Dakota.
Multiple tornadoes hit three Midwestern states.
The storms struck Nebraska, South Dakota, and Iowa.
The National Weather Service confirmed six twisters struck the states.
Fifteen people were injured in Wayne, Nebraska.
A
Nebraska newspaper reported several buildings in Wayne’s industrial
park were damaged or destroyed along with several homes south of the
city.
One tornado hit just blocks from Wayne State College.
PIERRE,
S.D. -- PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — In the span of 24 hours, the scenic Black
Hills in South Dakota were coated in up to three and a half feet of wet,
heavy snow, one of several Great Plains states walloped by a storm
system that's caused millions of dollars in damage.
Wind gusts of
up to 70 mph were recorded in the Black Hills, National Weather Service
meteorologist Katie Pojorlie said Saturday morning, but the snow was
expected to end later Saturday, giving people a chance to start digging
out from the unusual early fall snowstorm that set records.
But
wintry weather wasn't the only thing wrapped into the powerful cold
front, as thunderstorms brought heavy rain, hail and tornadoes in
Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota. No one died in the tornadoes, reports
said, but snow was blamed in the deaths of three people who were killed
in a traffic accident on U.S. 20 in northeast Nebraska.
Forecasters
said the front would eventually combine with other storms to make for a
wild — and probably very wet — weekend for much of the central U.S. and
Southeast.
The
metro area started the summer with heavy rains wiping out much of the
drought. Now because of the lack of rain since, "severe" drought has
made its way back to parts of the north metro. "The worst of the drought
stretches from the St. Cloud area through the northern Twin Cities
metro right down the Mississippi River through Winona," said
climatologist Pete Boulay. Boulay reported the worsening drought outlook
Thursday. "They're about 4 inches short at the airport. If you live in
Anoka, Washington, Ramsey Counties you're about five inches short of
normal," he said. "If you live down in Winona, they're missing eight
inches of rain." It's turned lush lawns into crunchy fields. The more
brown underneath Frank Rothanburg's shoes, the less green in his
pockets. "There's no work with all the grass being dead. There ain't
nothing to do," said Rothanburg. He estimates his Anoka company, Superb
Lawn Care, has lost $40,000 over the summer. "We've got places we
haven't mowed in three weeks now because they're just so burnt up," he
said. And it's not just rain that's missing. "We've only seen maybe
between 10 or 12 tornados for the year. And that's well below normal,"
said Boulay. And according to Rothanburg, even watering every other day
isn't helping. He is now hoping "Mother Nature" steps in. "Nothing's
helping. We need rain bad," said Rothanburg.
By DAVID PITT/Associated Press/ September 12, 2013
DES
MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The combination of heat and scarce amounts of rain
intensified the drought in several agriculturally significant states,
contributing to declining crop conditions in parts of the Midwest and
South.
However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a
separate report Thursday the expected record corn harvest and
third-largest soybean crop are on track, since areas that aren’t seeing
as severe a drought will produce enough to make up for the driest
regions.
Crops in states such as Kentucky and Tennessee look
better than they did a month ago, the USDA said, while Iowa and Missouri
are suffering from the heat.
‘‘The fringes of the corn belt are
producing enough to offset Iowa’s loss,’’ said Chad Hart, agriculture
economist at Iowa State University.
This week’s national drought
monitor, which tracked conditions from Sept. 3 to Tuesday, shows nearly
50.7 percent of the contiguous United States is now in moderate drought
or worse, up from just over 50 percent the week before.
The report
said in Iowa, the nation’s largest corn producer, severe drought spread
to nearly 42 percent of the state — up from 32 percent a week ago. All
but two of the state’s counties, both in east-central Iowa, are
experiencing some level of drought or abnormally dry conditions.
Doyle Rice, USA TODAY 6:05 p.m. EDT September 12, 2013
Drought is at its largest percentage since April.
Drought
covers more than half of the country and is at its largest percentage
since early April, according to this week's U.S. Drought Monitor, a
weekly federal website.
As of Tuesday, 50.7% of the contiguous USA is in a drought.
Hot,
dry weather over the past week led to worsening drought in the central
USA: In the Midwest, where temperatures have been as much as 10 degrees
above normal over the past week, drought expanded in parts of Missouri,
Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin, according to the
monitor.
For example, since July 1, La Crosse, Wis., has received
only 2.4 inches of rain, the driest July 1-Sept. 10 period on record for
that location.
Midwest hot, dry spell brings back drought worries
.
DAVID PITT August 29, 2013
DES
MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A growing season that began unusually wet and cold
in the Midwest is finishing hot and dry, renewing worries of drought and
its impact on crops.
Temperatures soared to records in recent
days in parts of the region, reaching nearly 100 degrees in some areas.
The heat wave struck many farm states — from the Dakotas to Wisconsin,
down through Missouri — that have seen too little rain this growing
season.
"It's about the worst case scenario we could have with
these high temperatures and the lack of water with soil moisture
declining," said Roger Elmore, an agronomy professor at Iowa State
University.
A wet, cool spring delayed planting and slowed crop
growth — but it also replenished soil moisture in many crop producing
states, causing some of last year's widespread drought to retreat. The
rain stopped in July in many of those states, however, and as the soil
dried out, the heat set in and stressed corn and soybean crops.
The
southeast Iowa city of Burlington, which is surrounded by corn fields,
had its wettest spring on record at 19.23 inches of precipitation,
nearly 8 inches above normal. Yet it's now on track to have its driest
summer on record, with only 3.86 inches so far, 8.41 inches below
normal.
Wayne Humphries farms about 1,000 acres about 45 miles
north of Burlington at Columbus Junction. He grows corn and soybeans and
raises hogs.
View gallery."
File - In this Aug. 27, 2013, file photo an ear of corn hangs on a withered stalk in Farmingdale, Il …
He
said he delayed planting by about 30 days because of wet fields and now
is watching the lower leaves of cornstalks turn brown from lack of
moisture. He hasn't seen a measurable rain for 30 days.
Soybean plants are suffering too as seeds are developing in the pods.
"I
have solace in the fact that we did everything we could and we did it
to the best of our ability and now whatever happens, happens," he said.
"It's sort of a philosophical moment."
Expanding U.S. Drought, Excessive Heat Hurt Iowa Corn, Soy Crops
By Jeff Wilson - Aug 29, 2013 7:12 PM CT
High heat and little rain during the past week led to an unusual, quick expansion of drought conditions in Iowa and Illinois, damaging crops in the biggest U.S. corn- and soybean-growing states.
About 25 percent of Iowa had a moderate drought on Aug. 27, up from 7.9 percent a week earlier, while Illinois
jumped to 20 percent from none, the U.S. Drought Monitor said yesterday
in a report. Parts of Iowa received less than 25 percent of normal
rain during the past 60 days, and much of Illinois got less than half
of normal since June 30, data from the High Plains Regional Climate
Center show.
After a wet May and June delayed planting, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture cut its soybean-crop forecast by 4.8 percent
on Aug. 12 and reduced its corn estimate for a third straight month.
July was the 20th coldest in 119 years in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan
and Iowa, National Weather Service data show. Soybean futures are up 17
percent from an 18-month low on Aug. 7 on forecasts for dry weather,
and corn rose 7.5 percent from a 35-month low on Aug. 13.
“The
heat and drought are speeding crop development and reducing yield
potential daily,” Roger Elmore, an agronomist at Iowa State University
in Ames, said in a telephone interview. “We are skipping over critical
stages of development that probably can’t recover even if temperatures
cool and a little rain falls.”
While the crops need hot weather to develop, temperatures that approached 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) from Nebraska to Indiana
in the past five days can cut corn yields at least 3 percent a day
while reducing the number of seeds and seed weight in soybeans, Elmore
said.
Yield Loss
Cool weather during the first 19 days of
August masked the stress that the dry spell was causing to crops over
most of the Midwest, Planalytics Inc. said in a report
yesterday. The epicenter of the crop damage is in Iowa, based on the
vegetative growth index that the forecaster constructs biweekly from
satellite images.
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