The day · Des Moines, Iowa
Afternoon · 10 min left
Sun 11.6° up, in the west · Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Lowlands
The kind of day it is
Wet
and high overcast
Rain on and off. Worms come up, slugs come out, mushrooms start their two-to-seven-day clock, and rivers colour up.
Check the mushroom ground two to seven days from now, and stay off wet beds — you'll compact them.
The day, phase by phase
Happening now · 15:01–18:27
3h 26m long
Afternoon
Where the sun is this minute. Its highest today: 51.2°.
The angle falls away again, but the ground is still releasing the morning's heat. Air temperature peaks well after the sun does — usually two to four hours late.
Where the light lands · Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Lowlands
The sun works west and the day's heat peaks now. On the water the wind usually peaks with it.
Up close
The soil surface is at its warmest and driest. Seeds sown this morning are germinating; seeds sown at noon in full sun may already be dead.
The whole landscape
The lake breeze front pushes inland — sometimes fifty kilometres — and where it collides with the warm inland air it triggers a line of thunderstorms that follows the shoreline's shape.
In the water now
Northern pikebest now
Sitting still in the weeds in one to three metres, facing out, waiting. Pike hunt by sight and prefer daylight to dark.
Yellow perchbest now
Roaming in schools over sand and weed in three to eight metres, feeding steadily all day.
Bluegillbest now
On the beds and the shallow flats, in water warm enough to see the bottom.
Rock points and current seams; up on top at first and last light, and willing to chase a surface lure then.
Run-off colours the water and brings food in. Fish the inflows and the seams.
In the garden now
Hoverflybest now
Hanging motionless in a sunbeam, then darting — hoverflies use warm still air and are strongest in the middle of the day.
Praying mantisbest now
Motionless on a flower head or stem, waiting. A mantis hunts by sight and needs the light.
Aphidsbest now
On the newest growth and the undersides of leaves, reproducing steadily through warm daylight.
Spider mitesbest now
On leaf undersides. They explode in hot dry weather and collapse in humidity, which is the whole control strategy.
Slugs work all day, not just at night, and blight moves in wet warm air.
Sitting this one out
Walleye · Lake trout · Brook trout · Brown trout · Black crappie · Channel catfish
The full guide
Everything for Des Moines this week in one place.
Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Lowlands
The region this day belongs to, and what lives in it.
The almanac
The year's arc: day length, the moon and the water behind the air.
The week ahead for Des Moines
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