Barometric Pressure Forecast for Urbandale, Iowa
Barometric pressure forecast for Urbandale, Iowa — on the rolling glacial till northwest of Des Moines, deep in the continental interior. See current barometric pressure and what it means for weather-sensitive people.
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Pressure and weather in Urbandale
Urbandale sits on the Des Moines Lobe, the young glacial till plain that gives central Iowa its gentle swells and poorly drained pothole ground. There is no ocean, no mountain range and no large lake within hundreds of miles to blunt what arrives, so the barometer here answers directly to whatever air mass has won the week. Spring is the season that matters most. From late March through June, warm humid air streaming north off the Gulf of Mexico runs into dry air spilling down off the High Plains and cold air still draining out of Canada, and Iowa sits at the seam. Low pressure centres tracking out of Colorado and Nebraska cross the state every few days, each one pulling the barometer down through the day before, then slamming it back up behind the cold front. Those frontal passages are what produce Iowa's severe thunderstorm and tornado season, and they are also the sharpest pressure swings a weather-sensitive person here will feel. By July the pattern quiets and humidity takes over. Autumn brings a second, milder round of the same frontal traffic.
What this means for you
In Urbandale the barometric pressure forecast is really a frontal calendar — spring lows crossing from Colorado deliver the fastest falls of the year. Watching current barometric pressure in the 12 hours ahead of a spring front gives weather-sensitive people the most useful warning.