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Updated report shows 21 tornadoes touched down July 19th

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Two tornadoes are spotted in Bondurant as seen from Iowa DOT traffic camera in Altoona.

It turns out more tornadoes hit Iowa back on July 19th than first thought.

After more detailed research, the National Weather Service now says the number of tornadoes that touched down statewide that day is now 21. That’s up from 16. Officials say five more tornadoes — most of them in corn and soybean fields — were identified through the use of high-resolution satellite images.

The largest twister that day hit Marshalltown, an EF-3 that destroyed 90 homes and damaged more than 600. Another EF-3 hit Pella, a pair of EF2s struck Bondurant, with three EF-1’s landing near Keosauqua and Monroe.

That leaves a total of 14 EF-0’s.

 

Rainfall pattern leaves state green on the top, brown on the bottom

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The first half of August hasn’t produced enough rainfall to help the area of the state that’s suffering the most from dry conditions.

DNR Hydrology Resources Coordinator, Tim Hall, keeps an eye on the midwest drought monitor, which put out a new report today. “Things are creeping a little bit drier and a little bit worse on the drought monitor,” Hall says. “Not a whole lot of change — but the change that was is on the drier side. So, it’s not getting any better yet.”

The water situation is dramatically different from the top of the state where lawns are green and growing — to the bottom of the state — where the grass is brown and crunchy. “It’s a very, very sharp diving line that almost runs right along I-80 between areas that are way below normal for the first two weeks of August, and areas that are way above normal,” Hall says. “So, it’s really a north-south wet-dry pattern that we’ve been in for quite awhile here.”

The drought map shows extreme to moderate drought conditions in south-central and southeast Iowa. Hall says there haven’t been many changes in that area of the state. “Those folks down there in southeast Iowa have been dealing with below normal precipitation for probably two years now,” according to Hall. “You go back 12 months and there are areas down there that are 15 or more inches below normal for the last 12 months. So, it’s an ongoing issue for them.” Hall says the positive side of the drought in that area is their drinking water supplies haven’t suffered.

“Fortunately in many places in southern Iowa individuals get their drinking water through rural water systems which pull out of some of the lakes. So, we haven’t seen a lot of drinking water shortages across that part of the state,” Hall says. “So, on a drinking water side it’s okay. On an agricultural side — clearly those folks could use a lot of rain.” Hall says we are unfortunately getting into the time of the crop development where it may be too late for rain to help in that area. He says the drinking water situation would be a lot different if the northern part of the state was dry.

“The part of the state that’s the most vulnerable to shallow groundwater issues is the northwest part of the state, and fortunately they’ve had pretty healthy rainfall this year,” Hall explains. “Had the corners of the state been flip-flopped — instead of dryness in southeast Iowa, if it had been dryness in northwest Iowa — I think the situation would be much more critical than it is now.”

Hall says that’s no consolation to the farmers in the southern part of the state who need rain. He says they will continue to watch the water situation, as precipitation always drops off as we head into the fall months, and that could make things worse.

 

Heavy thunderstorms take down trees in several areas of Iowa

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Tree damage in Webster City.

Severe thunderstorms rolled over parts of northern and central Iowa on Sunday, bringing much-needed rain to some areas and strong winds.

Powerful gusts hit Webster City where resident Craig Ewing says clean-up is going to take some time.

“Trees were going down and blocking the street and across the street, trees came down on top of houses,” Ewing says. “There’s quite a bit of wind damage throughout the whole town and we lost power.” Webster City Mayor John Hawkins toured some of the damaged areas of the community on Sunday.

“There’s a few hundred trees torn about or down around the town. There’s still a few leaning against houses,” Mayor Hawkins says. “A few people got their cars out from under some. Quite a bit of damage in the center of town.”

The Sheldon area also was hit. A severe thunderstorm that rumbled through the northwest Iowa town early Sunday morning left a path of heavy rain, hail, downed power lines and numerous fallen trees in its wake.

In Sheldon, the 80-mile-per-hour wind gusts clocked with the storm uprooted or broke off several large trees, including one that dropped off onto a minivan which was parked on a residential Sheldon street. Although there was extensive tree and property damage in the area, there are no reports of any injuries directly related to the storm.

A van crushed by a tree in Sheldon.

Forecasters say there’s the possibility for more strong storms later today (Monday) and into tomorrow.

(Stories and photos by Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City and Tom Traughber, KIWA, Sheldon)

 

Hot, humid temperatures are coming back to Iowa

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It’s been cooler-than-normal for summertime in Iowa but today and the next several days, the forecast is calling for hotter, steamier weather.

Meteorologist Andrew Ansorge , at the National Weather Service, says cities from Shenandoah to Lamoni to Des Moines may see highs of 95-degrees this afternoon.

“We’ll be flirting with mid-90s today in a few spots in Iowa but overall the next few days, we’re looking at high temperatures in the 80s to low 90s in general,” Ansorge says. “We’re also looking at dewpoints to increase into the 60s to near 70-degrees each day, so, it’ll feel a bit more humid than it has recently.”

These temperatures are relatively normal for early August, but it just seems hotter since we’ve had cooler weather for a while.

“We had a cool spell there, relatively speaking, in the latter part of July, which was much needed,” Ansorge says. “We’ve not seen much rainfall in the state so the cooler temperatures helped to ease the stress on crops. It’s still dry, but it could’ve been worse if it had been scorching hot the latter part of July.” Iowans who don’t use sprinklers or an irrigation system likely haven’t had to mow their lawns for a week or two and the grass is probably starting to get brown and crunchy. Relief may be coming soon.

“We’re looking at storm chances returning this weekend, northern Iowa moreso on Saturday and on Sunday into Sunday night, we’re looking at more statewide having a chance of rainfall,” Ansorge says. “Looks like the heaviest rainfall will probably not be where the drought conditions are over southern Iowa, but there still looks to be some rainfall down there.”

See more details on your forecast at weather.gov.

 

July weather numbers end up pretty close to average

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State Climatologist Justin Glisan.

Aside from an outburst of destructive tornadoes two weeks ago, the just completed month of July was fairly uneventful in terms of weather.

State Climatologist Justin Glisan says it was a welcome change from the extremes Iowans experienced the previous three months. “April was the coldest April on record, May was the warmest May on record, and then June was the 10th warmest and 10th wettest on record,” Glisan said. “Then, we get to July and compared to those months, it’s kind of ‘ho-hum,’ we’re almost in the middle for average temperature and almost in the middle for precipitation.”

The statewide preliminary average rainfall total for July is 3.5 inches. That’s just an inch below normal for a typical July. “It has seemed dry, especially in the southern part of the state – where they’re in drought conditions. They’re in a deficit of rainfall, over the past three years in some places, up to 20 inches,” Glisan said. “Then, you have the northern part of the state that has been getting too much rain.” The statewide preliminary average temperature last month — 73.3 degrees — is only three-tenths-of-a-degree below normal for a typical July.

“The beginning of the month was really hot, but we made up for it towards the end of the month with below average temperatures across much of the state,” Glisan said. The highest temperature recorded in Iowa last month was 101-degrees, in Lamoni, on July 13th. The towns of Stanley, Sheldon, and Waukon tied for the coldest temperature of 48 on July 27th and 28th.

It appears July 2018 will wind-up being the 55th coolest July in state history (tied with 1928 and 1981). 1936 was the warmest July of record, at 82.7 degrees…about 9 degrees above normal. Overall, 2009 was the coldest July on record at 68 degrees, almost six degrees below normal.

The National Weather Service is still investigating, but so far, 12 tornadoes have been confirmed in Iowa last month. They all happened on the same day, with the three strongest twisters touching down in Marshalltown, Pella, and Bondurant.

“On the 19th, we had three large population centers taking direct hits, which does not happen at all,” Glisan said. Only minor injuries were reported in that tornado outbreak. Through the first seven months of 2018, there have been 27 tornadoes confirmed in Iowa.

 

Cooler temperatures to end with increased risk of severe weather

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A long stretch of cooler than normal weather for this time of year will soon be coming to an end across Iowa.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Brad Small says the warm-up coming this weekend will be preceded by a chance of damaging storms over portions of northern Iowa.

“That would be during the peak heating hours of Wednesday afternoon and into the evening hours. The main threat would be damaging winds with those storms,” Small says. Wednesday’s severe weather risk area includes the cities of Spencer, Algona, Mason City, and Decorah.

Small says noticeably warmer weather will return on Friday, but it won’t match the “extreme heat” we experienced earlier this summer.

“But, it will be temperatures and humidity levels much more typical for early August, with highs in the uppers 80s to low 90s common across Iowa,” Small says. The warm and humid conditions will stretch into early next week, according to Small, and some thunderstorm chances are also in the weekend forecast.

 

Some storms with heavy rains hard to forecast

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Iowa and other Midwestern states are seeing more weather extremes this summer, with many areas experiencing heavy rains that cause flash flooding followed by long periods of heat with no rain.

Meteorologist Dennis Todey, director of the U.S.D.A.’s Midwest Climate Hub, based in Ames, says in some regions, those heavy rain showers may come more often.

Todey says, “That is something that has been noted more frequently and is potentially projected via computer models, is having larger events happening.” Todey says part of the pattern of climate change includes more weather extremes — like what we’ve experienced this spring and summer.

“You have maybe larger periods of dryness and then you have big events after that instead of events distributed around,” he says. Todey says it’s very difficult to forecast the arrival of some storms that will bring very heavy rain.

“This is what presents this complication when you’re trying to understand precipitation,” Todey says. “Sizes of events and timing of events and trying to understand those two spatial variabilities, that more big events at different times of the year and more isolated events really confuses the situation.” Todey says there’s growing concern those weather extremes could also apply to rapidly spreading drought conditions.

(By Jerry Oster, WNAX, Yankton)

 

State calculating June storm damage for federal aid applications

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Governor Kim Reynolds says the state is nearly ready to submit applications for federal disaster assistance for some areas of the state that were hit by storms in June.

Iowa has already qualified for federal help to repair and rebuild some public infrastructure, like roads and bridges, that were hit by flash flooding in central and northwest Iowa.

“So I think we’re really close on individual assistance and that will really have a big impact on a lot of Iowans and so we’re going to check on where we’re at today,” Reynolds says.

Flooding and severe weather hit several areas of the state in June, including the floods that caused damage in north central Iowa in early June, in Polk County at the end of June and in northwest Iowa in mid-June. To get federal grants and low interest loans for individuals who suffered losses to homes and business, the state must show damage reached significant levels.

“They’re taking a look at everything we need to do to make sure we qualify to get the additional resources into the state of Iowa,” Reynolds says.

Damage assessments are still being collected for this month’s tornado damage in Marshalltown, Pella and Bondurant. Reynolds says she spoke Sunday with a Marshall County Supervisor about how county government is adapting to damage to the county courthouse. Some county offices have been moved to a building across the street. The DOT has loaned the county a trailer so the Marshall County Treasurer’s office can still issue drivers licenses. Court cases have been moved to the Story County Courthouse in Nevada.

“They also have a lot of documents in the basement,” Reynolds says. “A lot of them are judicial documents that date back to the 1880s and so there’s a matter of removing that and storing those and then starting the clean-up.”

Tornado-damaged Marshalltown hospital reopens main campus

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Dustin Wright

One week after tornado damage forced the evacuation of its patients to other hospitals, Unity Point Health-Marshalltown reopened its main campus this morning.

Dustin Wright, the hospital’s Vice President of Operations, says it’s been a long week since 43 residents were moved after last Thursday’s powerful twister. “It’s taken some adjustments from all of us but we’re here for the community and we did our best with some limited resources but we’re proud of the work we did in the aftermath of the tornado,” Wright says. “We’re excited to be back at the main campus again.”

It helped that the hospital has a fairly new medical park on the south side of Marshalltown, a building was not affected by the July 19th tornado.

“We had to cancel a few elective procedures on Monday, but for the most part, we’ve been able to sustain a lot of our operations,” Wright says.

Senator Grassley meets with Habitat for Humanity members in Marshalltown.

One of the hospital’s free-standing clinics in the downtown area, a cardiology clinic, was destroyed by the storm. It is being relocated to part of the main downtown campus and is expected to be seeing patients again by the end of next week.

Senator Chuck Grassley, who visited Marshalltown this morning, says he anticipates the federal government will move as quickly as it can to provide disaster relief assistance.

“We’re going to do all we can to respond to the mayor’s request,” Grassley says. “When this assessment by FEMA is done, then we want the president to make sure we get a quick designation and get all the help that would normally go to natural disasters.”

Grassley says he could tell from what he saw after the tornado first hit through today that quite a bit of cleanup had already taken place, adding, he knows there is much more work to be done.

(Reporting by Ken Huge, KFJB, Marshalltown)

 

Majority of Iowa crops still in good shape

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Cornfield in southern Iowa.

It’s been a challenging growing season for farmers in many parts of Iowa, for a variety of reasons.

In north-central Iowa, crops were planted late due to snow and persistent heavy rains this summer caused ponding and drowned-out spots in many fields. But Brent Renner, who’s farms near Klemme, says much of the corn that survived is looking good.

“I’ve been through some stuff that at least appears to still have 240-bushel potential,” Renner says. “But there are very few, if any, fields in my immediate area that are going to have overall farm averages at that level.” Kent Klingbeil, an agronomist with Ames-based Landus Coop, says his biggest concern is nitrogen stress in corn.

“I’ve been out in some fields and there are a lot of leaves firing up on the bottom with nitrogen deficiencies,” Klingbeil said. “It will be interesting to see if we can mineralize enough nitrogen to keep filling those ears or if we’re going to run a little short.” Renner, who’s a custom sprayer, says weed control has also been a challenge. He says herbicide spraying programs have been “turned upside down” by the spring they had in north-central Iowa.

Many farmers in central and southern Iowa have crops that were damaged in the tornado outbreak one week ago. Other farmers, in south-central and southeast Iowa, are having problems with drought. But statewide, this week’s U.S.D.A. report rated 79% of Iowa’s corn crop in good-to-excellent condition and 76% of the state’s soybean crop in the good-to-excellent category.