MESOSCALE DISCUSSION 0904  
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK  
1246 AM CDT SAT MAY 26 2012  
  
AREAS AFFECTED...PARTS OF SERN SD...NERN NEB...NRN IA...SRN  
MN...SWRN WI  
  
CONCERNING...SEVERE POTENTIAL...WATCH POSSIBLE  
  
VALID 260546Z - 260715Z  
  
PROBABILITY OF WATCH ISSUANCE...40 PERCENT  
  
SUMMARY...IT IS NOT CERTAIN THAT A WW WILL BE NEEDED...BUT TRENDS  
ARE BEING MONITORED FOR THE POSSIBILITY OF AN INCREASING SEVERE  
WEATHER THREAT...THAT COULD POTENTIALLY REQUIRE A WW DURING THE NEXT  
FEW HOURS.  

Posted under NOAA, Severe Weather

Submit your weather Hot Shot by clicking here.
One photo is shown on the 5 pm newscast and one on the 10 pm newscast.

Posted under Hot Shots, Photo

Tonight: Mostly cloudy with a 70% chance of showers/storms. Low: 58-64. Wind: E 5-15 mph.

Saturday: A 50% chance of showers/storms in the morning. During the afternoon it will be partly cloudy, very warm, humid and breezy. High: 80-90. Wind: SE 10-20 mph.

Saturday Night: Mostly clear, warm and humid. Low: 68-69. Wind: S 5-15 mph.

Sunday: Mostly sunny, hot, humid and windy (S 15-25 mph). High: low 90s.

Monday (Memorial Day): Partly cloudy with a 40% chance of showers/storms. High: mid 80s.

Tuesday: Partly cloudy. High: mid 70s.

Wednesday: Partly to mostly cloudy with a 20% chance of showers/storms. High: upper 60s.

Thursday: Partly cloudy with a 20% chance of showers/storms. High: upper 60s.

Friday: Partly cloudy with a 20% chance of showers/storms. High: low 70s.

As a warm front lifts north tonight, scattered showers/storms could produce locally heavy rain and isolated severe storms. The main severe threat will be large hail. The map below is the severe weather outlook for tonight.

The map below shows the position of the warm front Saturday morning.

The map below is rain forecast from Friday evening to Saturday evening.

Once the warm front lifts north of your location it will get humid with dewpoints reaching the upper 60s. The map below shows dewpoints at 1 PM Saturday.

Sunday is going to be the hottest day this year and the most humid. A cold front is forecast to cross the state late Sunday night and Monday morning. Along and ahead of the cold front scattered shower/storms are forecast and some of those might be severe.

Posted under Forecast Discussion

MESOSCALE DISCUSSION 0895
   NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
   0309 PM CDT FRI MAY 25 2012
  
   AREAS AFFECTED…PORTIONS NRN MO…SRN/ERN IA…EXTREME ERN
   NEB…SMALL PART OF NWRN IL.
  
   CONCERNING…SEVERE POTENTIAL…WATCH POSSIBLE
  
   VALID 252009Z – 252215Z
   
   PROBABILITY OF WATCH ISSUANCE…40 PERCENT
   
   SUMMARY…POTENTIAL FOR LARGE HAIL IS INCREASING WITH GROWING
   COVERAGE OF ELEVATED TSTMS OVER MO/IA BORDER REGION.  ACTIVITY
   SHOULD SPREAD ENEWD THROUGH REMAINDER AFTERNOON.

Posted under NOAA, Severe Weather

May 25, 2008 is a date fresh in many Iowan’s minds. Today marks the fourth anniversary of the Parkersburg tornado.

It was an active day across the Plains. There were over 500 wind damage and hail reports across the United States. Fifty-three tornadoes were reported that day from Texas up to Minnesota.

Iowa reported 31 tornadoes but most of those reports were based from one large, destructive tornado.

The tornado touched down two miles south of Aplington around 4:48 pm. It grew in size and intensity to 3/4 of a mile wide by the time it hit Parkersburg around 4:56 pm. Nearly 200 homes were destroyed and dozens injured. The tornado continued it’s destructive path into New Hartford around 5:09 pm creating more damage. The tornado then weakened on the east side of New Hartford.

During this weak stage, it moved just north of Waterloo and Cedar Falls. A 93 mph wind gust was reported at the Waterloo Airport from a downdraft just south of the tornado.

The tornado re-intensified to 1.2 miles wide before it hit north of Dunkerton and damaged a farmstead. It lifted at 5:50 pm.

Below is the official track of the tornado from the National Weather Service.

The tornado tracked a total of 43 miles, killing nine people and injuring 75. Millions of dollars of damage was reported from this one storm. The National Weather Service rated the tornado an EF-5, the highest a tornado can be rated with wind estimates over 200 mph. The last F-5 tornado to hit Iowa was on June 13, 1976 in Jordan.

Photos from that day:

Below are links for more information and photos from this event.

Aerial photos of storm damage

Photos by the Storm Survey team from the Des Moines National Weather Service

Storm Track and Radar Images of tornado

Here is the Service Assessment of the EF5 tornado

Click the image below for the loop.

Posted under Severe Weather, Weather History

7 AM Thu – 7 AM Fri

Posted under Precipitation Totals

From NWS
2008: Several rounds of severe thunderstorms struck Iowa during the afternoon and evening hours producing tornadoes, large hail, and damaging straight-line winds. The most destructive storm produced a large EF5 tornado that cut a path across northeastern Iowa from south of Aplington to west of Fairbank, devastating parts of Parkersburg and New Hartford as well as numerous farmsteads and barely missing Cedar Falls to the north. The tornado was more than a mile wide at times and completely leveled numerous structures with the foundations swept clean and even the basements partially excavated in some instances. Nine people were killed and approximately 75 injured along the damage path. The storm also produced hail as large as softballs around Finchford and Boies and a 93 mph wind gust at the Waterloo airport. This was the first tornado classified as EF5 under the newly adopted Enhanced Fujita or “EF” tornado damage scale. The last F5 tornado in Iowa struck the small town of Jordan on June 13, 1976.

1903: Several tornadoes struck southwestern, southern, and central Iowa during the late afternoon and evening hours. One storm produced a tornado that moved northward across southern sections of Des Moines before turning toward the northwest near the junction of the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers. There may have been a second tornado about a mile to the northeast at the same time. Two people were killed and several injured in Des Moines. Further south a tornado struck Creston resulting in several fatalities and injuries and destroying a church and about a dozen homes. Another tornado struck portions of northeastern Monroe and southwestern Mahaska counties, destroying several residences in the small mining camp of Buxton on the Chicago and Northwestern railroad. Several people in two families were killed and several more were seriously injured. This tornado also appears to have taken a very unusual path with eyewitnesses reporting that it traveled from southeast to northwest similar to the storm in Des Moines. Thunderstorms also produced heavy rain across the area with 3.5 inches falling in a short time in Oskaloosa where Penn College was struck by lightning, damaging at least one building. An estimated 5 inches of rain fell at Adel in about an hour and a half, producing a flash flood that swept through the town severely damaging many buildings and washing out roads and railroad tracks. An observer in downtown Adel wrote that the water was rushing down the street “four and five feet deep” and flooded every basement and cellar in the city. Further southwest another tornado struck a dormitory in Glenwood, killing two girls and injuring nearly a dozen others. At Des Moines this was the first of a record 12 consecutive days on which measurable rain fell.

25 May 1896 → May 1896 was an extremely active month for tornadoes. On this date the third (estimated) F5 twister of the month struck the thumb of Michigan. There were 47 fatalities, including some entire families. Parts of houses were found 12 miles away. 25 May 1917 → A mile-wide F5 funnel swept away homes and entire farms near Andale and Sedgwick, KS. 23 people were killed and 70 were injured. 25 May 1953 → In 1953, tropical storms began being named after women. Tropical Storm Alice was the first Atlantic cyclone to be named. 25 May 1955 → It was a bad day for Sumner County, KS and adjoining Kay County, OK, as not one but two F5 tornadoes struck. Half the population of Udall, KS was killed (75) or injured (270) as most of the town was destroyed. Blackwell, OK suffered nearly 1,000 destroyed buildings, including 400 homes that were swept clean of their foundations. The two tornadoes killed 100 people. 25 May 1979 → In the 1979 Memorial Tournament, Tom Watson shot a 69 in the second round in rain, freezing temperatures, and 30 mph winds in Dublin, OH. That was 10 strokes better than the average of the rest of the golfers that day. He continued to play well and won the tournament. He said he was used to it since he is from Kansas City.

Posted under Weather History