Flood — Butler, Iowa

2024-05-21 to 2024-05-22 · near Kesley, Butler, Iowa

Event narrative

County emergency management reports 17 road closures across southern Butler county due to water over roadways.

Wider weather episode

PLEASE NOTE, for tornadoes, please see separate Storm Data entry for May 21st.

Multiple rounds of thunderstorms brought torrential rainfall, damaging winds, hail and destructive tornadoes to the state. These thunderstorms were the result of a low pressure system which lifted north into the area on the night of May 20th, 2024, producing slow moving storms that dropped 2 to 4 inches of rainfall. This resulted in flash flooding over portions of northern and central Iowa through the morning of May 21st, 2024. State level damage estimates to public infrastructure exceeded 7 million dollars due to the morning flooding.

Following the heavy rainfall through the morning, skies cleared out ahead of an approaching cold front. By the afternoon hours of May 21st, 2024, this cold front produced a line of strong thunderstorms which produced multiple strong tornadoes throughout the state, including one which led to significant damage in the town of Greenfield, IA, among other locations. This line of storms also produced damaging winds, leading to widespread tree damage and power outages throughout the forecast area.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (42.6771, -92.9968)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1183383. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.