Thunderstorm Wind — Mills, Iowa

2025-10-05 · near Tabor, Mills, Iowa

Event narrative

Personal weather station measured wind gust of 58 mph.

Wider weather episode

On the evening of October 5th, 2025, a band of showers and thunderstorms developed across southwest Iowa, tracking along and ahead of a southward-moving cold front. Though initial conditions were characterized by considerable cloud cover and marginal moisture content, leading to limited air mass destabilization, storm organization was still supported by a deep-layer shear of 35-40 knots and a largely unidirectional wind profile.

The presence of a well-mixed, inverted-V type boundary-layer structure contributed to the strong, outflow-dominated wind potential. These organized thunderstorms produced a report of a measured 58 mph wind gust 4 miles north-northeast of Tabor, Iowa at 6:33 PM CST. A trained spotter report of hail estimated up to penny sized was received in Malvern, Iowa at 6:40 PM CST. As the evening progressed into the overnight hours, the convective band reportedly became more disorganized, with the area of precipitation expanding to the north.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (40.9400, -95.6400)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1296108. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.