Hail — Story, Iowa

2025-05-19 · near Maxwell, Story, Iowa

Event narrative

Mostly small hail with a few stones up to quarter sized.

Wider weather episode

A warm front lifted out of Missouri and into Iowa in the late afternoon, with convection continuing through the evening. Instability of around 1000 J/kg of MLCAPE and effective shear values of 30-40 kts were sufficient to produce hail up to golf ball sized as they moved north along the I-80 corridor. Later that evening storms grew upscale but diminished in strength. Several personal weather stations then reported gusts of 60-65+ mph on the dry side of stratiform, non thunderstorm, rain areas. This was likely due to evaporative processes along the edge of the precipitation areas.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.8900, -93.4000)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1253697. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.