Parts of Iowa were battered by severe weather last night and early this morning. Tornado watches and warnings were issued by the National Weather Service in metro Des Moines where meteorologist Rod Donovan says it was an active shift.
He says there were eight to ten tornado touchdowns overnight, with some in Hamilton County, near Stanhope, a few touchdowns near Williams, near Iowa Falls, Eldora, Steamboat Rock and Dike.
No injuries are reported and most of the damage was minor. Storm chasers were in north central Iowa late yesterday afternoon tracking the tornadoes as the storms made their way across the state. Donovan described one of the damage reports in the Grundy County town of Dike.
He says a hog confinement building was heavily damaged. Much of the building was lifted up and thrown into a field and most of the livestock survived. Donovan says some parts of eastern Iowa experienced the high winds and heavy rain early this morning.
More tornado touch downs were reported near Kolona while Fairfield reports wind gusts around 60 miles an hour. The town of Belle Plaine had more than four inches of rain. With the storms subsiding early this morning, Donovan says the heat of summer will definitely be felt today as high dew points combine with high temperatures in the low to mid-90s to bring heat indices in the area of 110 degrees.
Temperatures later in the week should be back down in the 80s.