Hail — Hancock, Iowa

2025-04-28 · near Britt, Hancock, Iowa

Wider weather episode

A longwave trough across the western US moved east with a resulting surface low deepening across the central plains and lifting into Iowa. Lapse rates steepened through the day and MLCAPE values surged past 3000 J/kg, accompanied by deep layer shear around 40-50 kts. Even so, uncertainty existed at the time regarding how widespread storm coverage would be given a stout cap in place. Hodographs indicated SRH of up to 300 m2/s2, supporting rotating storms with a conditional tornadic threat should that cap be overcome. At the end of the day the full environmental potential was not realized and no tornadoes were reported, however a number of storms produced large hail and damaging winds. Storms initialized in northwest Iowa in the afternoon along the dryline, and moving across northern Iowa through the evening. These storms produced quarter up to golf ball sized hail. A second area of thunderstorms developed across central Iowa in the evening, fueled by a strengthening low level jet. Additionally, light showers lifted out of Missouri and into southern Iowa by late evening. Despite no lightning in the area and very light to no precipitation occurring at the time of reports, multiple sites in southern Iowa reported gusts over 60 mph along with one report of damage to a barn.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (43.1000, -93.8000)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1251387. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.