Thunderstorm Wind — Mills, Iowa

2025-04-01 · near Folsom, Mills, Iowa

Event narrative

Personal weather station measured gust of 65 mph, likely due to the evaporating of anvil precipitation helping to mix down a strong low-level jet.

Wider weather episode

A deepening mid-level trough moving into the Intermountain West'and eventually the central Plains'helped initiate the development of a surface low over eastern Colorado on the evening of March 31, 2025. As the system progressed eastward on April 1, the surface low continued to intensify. A strengthening low-level jet aided in drawing a narrow plume of Gulf moisture northward into the region.

By the afternoon, a corridor of 500'1500 J/kg of MUCAPE had advected into the area. Combined with sufficient deep-layer shear exceeding 45 knots, the environment became supportive of elevated supercell development across central and eastern Nebraska from late afternoon into the evening. These storms primarily posed a damaging wind threat, with multiple reports of wind gusts between 55'82 mph, including damage to homes west of Fremont, Nebraska. Additional thunderstorm developed across southeast Nebraska and southwest Iowa brought another wind threat, this time due to the evaporative cooling of anvil-level precipitation helping to mix down the strong low-level jet. Wind gusts of 56-65 mph were measured in this area. Hail remained below severe limits, with the largest reports near 0.7 inches in diameter in Butler county. As the storms tracked eastward overnight, they gradually weakened and exited the area.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.0800, -95.8200)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1248164. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.