Damage is still being assessed from the severe storm, large hail and tornado that swiped parts of northwest Iowa last night. The storm also rumbled across southwest Minnesota and eastern South Dakota. Meteorologist Todd Heitkamp, at the National Weather Service office in Sioux Falls, says hailstones as large as three-and-a-half inches in diameter were reported in the storm. He says that’s the size of a grapefruit, "it’s a big chunk of ice, there’s no doubt about that."
The monster hail was reported in Dickinson, Clay and Buena Vista counties, while the tornado touched down in Dickinson County. Heitkamp says severe winds damaged a hog barn near Lake Park, Iowa, and hail was one-to-two inches deep near Storm Lake, Iowa.