From NWS
1993: Record flooding continued across eastern and southeastern Iowa as all river traffic on the Mississippi River was closed from Saint Louis to Minnesota. Record crests occurred on July 6th on Old Mans Creek southwest of Iowa City and on the English River at Kalona and near record crests occurred on Clear Creek at Coralville, the North Skunk River at Sigourney, and the Maquoketa River at Maquoketa.

1899: A very severe hail and wind storm struck portions of Marion County at about 10 pm. The damage swath was about 3 miles wide and 15 miles long, extending from 5 miles west of Pleasantville eastward across the Des Moines River at Red Rock. At Pleasantville the hail stones ranged in size from that of walnuts up to goose eggs, with significant damage sustained by all buildings and vegetation in the area as the large stones were driven with much force by very strong winds. An account in the local newspaper noted that “some of the larger hailstones broke through roofs of buildings, and in some cases they penetrated the ceilings of the rooms below.”

1893: A violent tornado struck northwestern Iowa leveling nearly the entire town of Pomeroy. The tornado first touched down in Cherokee County where six people were killed in a single family. It then traveled through Buena Vista County becoming a waterspout as it crossed Storm Lake. A resident observed that “water along the north shore receded rapidly, a hundred feet or more, leaving bare ground at the pier. After its passage, water rushed back with a tidal wave several feet high.” After cutting through the extreme southwestern corner of Pocahontas County the tornado produced its worst damage, possibly of F5 intensity, in the town of Pomeroy in northern Calhoun County before dissipating soon thereafter. About 80 percent of the buildings in Pomeroy were destroyed or severely damaged with many leveled to the ground. In the town of a little more than 1000 people, around 50 were killed and more than 100 others were injured. The casualties would probably have been more numerous except that many residents had dug cellars into the porous ground for food storage and when they saw the storm coming sought shelter in these caves, likely saving many lives. In total the tornado killed at least 70 people and injured more than 200 on its path of destruction across northwestern Iowa.

1881: Heavy rain produced flash flooding that damaged a railroad bridge across Honey Creek west of Boone. A 15 year old girl named Kate Shelley crawled across the nearby Des Moines River railroad bridge during the storm, at night, and ran to the train depot at Moingona to warn them not to send the midnight passenger train across the damaged Honey Creek bridge. When a new bridge was built across the span in 1901 the railroad named it after Kate for her heroism and it still bears her name today.

6 July 1893 → Storm Lake and Pomeroy, IA were hit by an F5 tornado. 71 were killed and 80% of the homes in Pomeroy were destroyed. 6 July 1985 → Lightning struck a large transformer in Salt Lake City, UT sending a 200 foot fireball into the air and blacking out most of the state for almost 5 hours. 6 July 2007 → Missoula, MT soared to an all-time high of 107 degrees. The following week they would hit 103 on two separate days.

Posted under Weather History