Corn Sweat Unleashes a Merciless Heatwave on Iowa

When I first moved to the Midwest nearly four years ago, I thought it would be the winters that would be tough to deal with.

Little did I know that those blistering cold days in January or February would have nothing on an Iowa summer!

The end of August saw muggy, humid, and just straight up HOT conditions smother the Hawkeye State.

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According to our weather partners at KCRG, some parts of Eastern Iowa saw heat indexes that reached at least 100 to 110 degrees.

These excessive heat warnings that came out around August 26th were also issued for Illinois and Wisconsin.

A major factor that played into this Midwestern heat wave involved something called "corn sweat."

What Is Corn Sweat?

Multiple major media outlets have been posting about the infamous "corn sweat."

All of our hard-working farmers know that crops like corn and soybeans draw moisture straight from the ground and evaporate through their leaves or stems, according to the Washington Post.

The official word for this is evapotranspiration.

This mixes in with other water molecules to give us more humidity!

Reports say that a single acre of corn can actually release enough water to fill an entire swimming pool. This is meant to keep the corn cool with the heat and lead to a higher dewpoint.

Another key factor in these muggy Midwest conditions involved the moisture moving up north from the Gulf of Mexico, according to reports.

moisture moving north from the Gulf of Mexico this week also fueled the muggy conditions.

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