Temps to top 40 degrees... finally

CEDAR RAPIDS - With high temperatures expected in the upper 30s, the area's record-setting stretch of sub-40-degree weather should be about to end.

Tuesday was the 91st consecutive day the temperature at The Eastern Iowa Airport failed to reach 40, breaking a record set Dec. 18, 1977-March 17, 1978, State Climatologist Harry Hillaker said.

Dec. 1's 58-degree reading was the last time the National Weather Service recorded a temperature above 40 at the airport.

The weather service station at the Iowa City Airport last saw 40 degrees on Christmas Day, when it reached 41 degrees. That 68-day-and-counting streak shatters a 37-day record set Nov. 29, 2007-Jan. 4, 2008, but Hillaker noted the city's record remains intact because records at the airport site go back only about 15 years.

Readings have been taken at Iowa City's long-term site, now the city's wastewater treatment plant, since 1893. The sub-40 record there is 74 days, set in 1944-'45 and 1978-'79, according to Hillaker.

Cedar Rapids also has a “historic” site, actually in Marion, with readings dating to 1893. But that site recorded a 40-degree reading Jan. 13, when it hit 38 at the airport. The Marion site hasn't recorded any stretch as long as the airport, where records date to the winter of 1953-'54.

Cedar Rapids may add a day or two to the record before a return to near-normal temperatures should bring a 40-degree high Friday or Saturday.