Beside a road/2.9 mi away/955 ft/56 ft above here
temp, pavement temp, wind, visibility, precip
Alert. A Freeze Watch is in force for Van Meter until 9 AM tomorrow. Read the alert in full, and see what it means in the Field Book.
Now. Van Meter is 47° and mostly clear at 1 AM. With the wind it feels like 42°. The dew point is 41°, so the air feels dry and comfortable. Gentle breeze from the northwest at 11 mph, gusting to 21 mph.
Today and tonight. It warms to about 51° by 3 PM. Tonight falls to about 33° by 6 AM, under a mostly clear sky. Frost can form on the ground in sheltered spots. No rain is expected for the rest of the day.
The week. The warmest day ahead is Wednesday, near 75°, and the coolest tomorrow, near 59°. The days ahead look dry. Frost is possible tomorrow morning, a low of 33°.
The sky tonight. The sun sets at 6:33 PM. The Moon is a waxing crescent, 33% lit, and sets at 10:26 PM. The next full Moon is Sunday, Oct 25. After dark, look for Saturn, bright in the east-southeast. A planet shines with a steady light where the stars around it twinkle. The Orionids meteor shower is active, peaking around Oct 21: at its peak, up to about 20 meteors an hour can be seen from a dark site. The sky is forecast to stay clear: a good night to look up. The day is 11 hours 5 minutes long, 3 minutes shorter than yesterday.
As of 1:00 AM in Van Meter, Iowa.
Air quality
Index 16, good, led by ozone. Read at 12 AM from its reporting area, Des Moines (IA), 16 miles off.
Good each day through Sat Oct 17, led by fine particles. Yesterday measured 20, good.
No smoke near the ground through Sat 7 PM.
Precipitation
0.79 in in the last 24 hours, and none in the 2 days before, to Fri 12 AM. Measured by radar and rain gauges, as water.
Visibility
Visibility stays 7 miles or more through Sat 7 PM, lowest 8 miles Sat 1 AM.
F
Now, today, and the week
On the radar over Van Meter, IowaReflectivityStorm topsRain rateRain, last 24 hoursForecast temperatureForecast rain totalEvery picture
The 8 instruments nearest Van Meter, how far away each one is, how high it stands, and what kind of measurement it makes. The nearest is 0.5 miles away.
measured now6 instruments
Beside a road/2.9 mi away/955 ft/56 ft above here
temp, pavement temp, wind, visibility, precip
Citizen station FW8034FW8034
In a volunteer observer's own ground/11.1 mi away/962 ft/63 ft above here
temp, humidity, wind, precip, pressure
Des MoinesDSM
At an airfield/15.8 mi away/965 ft/66 ft above here
temp, wind, gust, visibility, precip, pressure
Des Moines River 4 WNW Saylorville ReservoirSAYI4
At a reservoir/18.5 mi away/896 ft/3 ft below here
temp, wind, gust, humidity, pressure
Des Moines 17 E54902
At a climate reference station/34.8 mi away/903 ft/4 ft above here
temp, humidity, wind, solar, precip
AmesS2031
At a soil climate station/34.9 mi away/1,073 ft/174 ft above here
temp, humidity, soil temp, soil moisture
measured daily2 instruments
Van Meter 0.2 NNEIA-DL-43
In a volunteer observer's own ground/0.5 mi away/876 ft/23 ft below here
precip, snowfall, snow depth
AdelADXI4
At a cooperative observer's station/4.7 mi away/961 ft/62 ft above here
snowfall, snow depth, precip, high, low
Station report
The nearest airport reporting now, 15.8 mi from Van Meter, Iowa. From its report of Oct 15, 2026, 11:54 PM local time: 3 of its 6 sheets.
A few clouds at 5,500 ft; visibility 10 mi or more.
48.0 F with a dew point of 39.0 F, 71 per cent relative humidity. Air lifted from the station would cool to its dew point, where cloud forms, about 2,100 ft up; the lowest cloud reported is at 5,500 ft.
From the northwest (310 degrees) at 17 mph: force 4, a moderate breeze on the Beaufort scale. The strongest gust today was 46 mph.
The full report of Des Moines, in 6 sheets, each beside the Field Book plates that explain it
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Snow on the ground
15 places, each with its own forecast and its own instruments.
The nearest places, each with its own forecast and the instruments nearest it.