Much of Iowa’s southern half got drenched in heavy thunderstorms Tuesday afternoon and evening, pushing rivers and streams well out of their banks and flooding roadways, back yards and basements. Meteorologist Miles Schumacher, at the National Weather Service, says some areas of the state report getting four inches of rain in just 45 minutes.
“Most areas had over 2 inches, around 3 inches in Des Moines and we’ve had amounts as high as 5 to 6 inches in southwest Iowa, toward Creston,” Schumacher says. “Most areas in the southern two tiers of counties got at least 3, three-and-a-half inches.”
River banks and storm sewer lines were overwhelmed while Flood Warnings are still in effect for numerous counties this morning across Iowa’s southern half, almost everything south of Interstate 80. “There’s just a lot of water and a lot of roads underwater,” Schumacher says. “County officials are quite busy barricading roads and there are some washouts in Union County and Warren County. The rivers are flooding. We’ve got rivers in moderate flood stage.”
While there’s a chance for more rain Thursday and Friday, forecasters say it shouldn’t be nearly as bad as this latest storm, while much colder weather will be pushing into the state over the next few days. “After that, it looks like temperatures will be generally in the 30s across the north and low 40s across the south for Saturday morning,” Schumacher says. “Quite cool for this time of the year. Not quite records but getting close.” See more details on the forecast at weather-dot-gov.