Clean-up is underway this morning in several Iowa communities after strong wind gusts accompanied last night’s thunderstorms. Tree limbs toppled, zapping out power to hundreds of homes statewide. Meteorologist Ken Podrazik, at the National Weather Service, says there were damage reports from several counties, including: Bremer, Butler, Dallas, Madison and Polk.
“There was isolated wind damage,” Podrazik says. “We had reports of gusts up to 60 miles an hour and a few spots with large tree branches down and one instance near Allison, we had a barn that was blown down by strong winds as well.” While the rain was welcome in dry areas, there was too much of a good thing in Onawa, which saw flash flooding with nearly four inches of rain in two hours.
Some vehicles on roads in Onawa were trapped in floodwaters up to their bumpers. Podrazik says most of Iowa just got a good soaking.
Most spotters overnight are reporting an inch to an inch-and-a-half of rainfall. He says the forecast for today and tomorrow calls for relatively normal temperatures in the 70s and 80s with mostly sunny skies, but more potential rough weather is on the way.
“We’ve got another system coming in late Friday night and it looks like it’s shaping out to be more through much of the day Saturday and even into Saturday evening,” he says. Outside of that, there’s no rain expected beyond the weekend and into next week. See the full forecast at: www.weather.gov
By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City