Thunderstorm Wind — Des Moines, Iowa

2024-07-15 · near Prairie Grove, Des Moines, Iowa

Event narrative

A public report of an 8 inch tree limb down blocking the road. The time of the event was estimated using radar.

Wider weather episode

Thunderstorms rapidly developed over northern Iowa during the afternoon and organized into a powerful line of wind producing storms that surged through the Quad Cities and into northern and central Illinois through the evening hours. These storms brought widespread damaging winds up to 100 mph for many locations, extending across eastern Iowa, much of Illinois, and into Indiana. The Storm Prediction Center has classified this event as a Derecho which by definition is a swath of wind damage at least 400 miles long and at least 60 miles wide including several well-separated significant wind gusts over 75 mph. Corridors of significant wind damage occurred along Highway 20. 10 tornadoes also occurred with these storms in the NWS Quad Cities service area.

In addition to the wind, very heavy rainfall fell in a short amount of time with many locations seeing over an inch. Flash flooding was reported in Cedar Rapids as well as in parts of Dubuque County.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (40.8800, -91.2500)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1201251. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.