More rough weather rumbled over Iowa last night and this morning, with funnel clouds spotted near Truro in Madison County and near Nevada in Story County. Roger Vallhollek, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, says the storms brought high winds, large hail and plenty of rain.
Thunderstorms dropped moderate-to-heavy rain along the Iowa-Minnesota border, with some areas seeing two-to-three inches of rain. Parts of southern Minnesota reported more than four-inches of rainfall. In northwest Iowa’s O’Brien County, there are reports of four-inch diameter hail falling near the town of Sheldon. Vallhollek says the storms also joggled the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area.
Many power outages and trees were downed in the storm early this morning, fences were blown over and a semi-truck was blown off a roadway in winds that gusted up to 60 miles an hour. One area of Butler County reported more than three-inches of rainfall. Vallhollek says another storm system is forming over Nebraska and headed east, bringing the possibility of more storms over northern Iowa.
The forecast calls for the chance of more rainfall this afternoon and evening, perhaps stretching into central and southern Iowa, too.