Hail in Page County, Iowa

Public report of hail measured up to 1 inch in diameter.

On the afternoon of May 18, severe thunderstorms produced damaging winds gusts and hail across southwest Iowa. a strong shortwave trough ejected eastward across the region, providing robust forcing for large-scale ascent. Despite lingering morning cloud cover, very steep mid-level lapse rates combined with the daytime heating of a moist low-level airmass to generate strong instability south of an advancing cold front. Mesoanalysis revealed strong theta-e advection extending from central Kansas through southeast Nebraska and southwest Iowa, highlighting the rapid return of a highly volatile environment. Thunderstorms initially initiated on the warm side of the boundary over northwest Kansas before additional development began over far southeast Nebraska, eventually pushing into southwest Iowa by 4:00 PM CST. This convection initially exhibited discrete supercell characteristics before eventually transitioning into a broader multicell cluster.

The primary hazards with this portion of the severe complex were large hail and significant straight-line winds. Residents in communities such as Farragut and College Springs reported hail up to ping-pong ball size (1.50 inches). Meanwhile, the bowing segments of the storm complex continued to produce extreme downdrafts, highlighted by an 84 mph wind gust measured by a personal weather station northeast of Shambaugh. The storms tracked eastward into the evening hours.