Hail — Palo Alto, Iowa

2023-06-24 · near Emmetsburg, Palo Alto, Iowa

Event narrative

Law enforcement relayed report of nearly baseball sized hail in Emmetsburg. This is a delayed report and time estimated from radar.

Wider weather episode

A low pressure system slowly dropping SE form the eastern Dakotas and SW Minnesota dragged a cold front across the state during the evening and overnight hours of the 24th of June. Within the warm sector, MUCAPE values peaked in excess of 3000 J/kg during peak heating and scaled back a bit overnight but remained around or in excess of 2000 J/kg. Effective shear values were supportive for organized convection, residing in the 35 to around 50 kt range. Morning and lingering convective activity likely played a role in initiating some storms with remnant outflow boundaries around. As a result, a number of isolated or clustered organized storms were seen during the evening and overnight hours and produced a number of reports of large hail and damaging winds. The largest hail reported was 3 inches in both Palo Alto and Black Hawk counties. A couple of funnel clouds were reported as well.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (43.1100, -94.6800)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1106478. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.