4,632 first-hand accounts of flood events in Iowa, ranked by impact. Each is a NOAA-written narrative of the moment.
May 2013 was a wet month across the state. The heavy rainfall brought relief across the state from the drought of the preceding year. The month began with a May record snow event. Snow began in northwest Iowa early on the morning of the 1st with six inches reported at Sibley.
Read the full account →The storm track shifted a bit further north in June, keeping the excessive rains confined to about the northeast one-third of the state. The month���s largest event|came from the 21st to the 23rd with Dorchester recording 8.99 inches of rain.
Read the full account →Low pressure developed and strengthened over portions of central Nebraska and eastern Kansas through the day. The warm front moved up into southern Minnesota while the weakening cold front existed over eastern Nebraska, leaving much of Iowa within the unstable warm sector.
Read the full account →A generally stationary boundary remained oriented roughly west to east across the state through the evening and overnight hours. As a result, storms initiated along and north of the boundary and provided multiple rounds of heavy rainfall from roughly Ames northward.
Read the full account →An ideal setup was seen across northern and central Iowa for repeated rounds of heavy rainfall and severe weather. A weak warm frontal boundary stalled out across the area as it transitioned to a stationary boundary and allowed multiple rounds of storms to initiate on the 21st…
Read the full account →A generally stationary boundary remained oriented roughly west to east across the state through the evening and overnight hours. As a result, storms initiated along and north of the boundary and provided multiple rounds of heavy rainfall from roughly Ames northward.
Read the full account →An ideal setup was seen across northern and central Iowa for repeated rounds of heavy rainfall and severe weather. A weak warm frontal boundary stalled out across the area as it transitioned to a stationary boundary and allowed multiple rounds of storms to initiate on the 21st…
Read the full account →An ideal setup was seen across northern and central Iowa for repeated rounds of heavy rainfall and severe weather. A weak warm frontal boundary stalled out across the area as it transitioned to a stationary boundary and allowed multiple rounds of storms to initiate on the 21st…
Read the full account →An ideal setup was seen across northern and central Iowa for repeated rounds of heavy rainfall and severe weather. A weak warm frontal boundary stalled out across the area as it transitioned to a stationary boundary and allowed multiple rounds of storms to initiate on the 21st…
Read the full account →An ideal setup was seen across northern and central Iowa for repeated rounds of heavy rainfall and severe weather. A weak warm frontal boundary stalled out across the area as it transitioned to a stationary boundary and allowed multiple rounds of storms to initiate on the 21st…
Read the full account →Repeated rounds of thunderstorms with heavy rains moved across portions of northeast Iowa during the evening of August 23rd into the early morning hours of the 24th.
Read the full account →Reports from the 13h through the 19th in this entry. ||A relatively deep and widespread snowpack existed across the region during early to mid March.
Read the full account →The setup over Iowa was primed for a heavy rainfall event for a few reasons, including persistent SW 500 mb flow, a strong and SW oriented 850 mb jet, strong low level moisture transport, and elevated CAPE around 1000-2000 J/kg.
Read the full account →A line of thunderstorms moved across northeast Iowa during the afternoon of September 12th. These storms produced a weak tornado in the vicinity of Ossian (Winneshiek County) that damaged some farm buildings and numerous trees.
Read the full account →Heavy rains during the fourth week of July resulted in the Maquoketa River at Manchester going above the moderate flood stage level of 17 feet on July 23 around 1130 am CDT.
Read the full account →Thunderstorms with high winds and extremely heavy rain moved across northeast Iowa during the evening of September 21st into the early morning of the 22nd. Winds of 60 to 70 mph occurred near Rockford (Floyd County) and Nora Springs (Floyd County).
Read the full account →A warm front extended east to west across the Upper Mississippi Valley on June 7, which provided the focus for thunderstorms producing excessive rainfall. In fact, these storms exhibited very high rainfall rates, which led to 1 to 2 inch rainfall amounts in an hour.
Read the full account →In the hours after midnight on the 28th a low pressure system was over portions of central/eastern Nebraska moving toward Iowa. A warm front extended east out of the surface low into southern Iowa.
Read the full account →In the hours after midnight on the 28th a low pressure system was over portions of central/eastern Nebraska moving toward Iowa. A warm front extended east out of the surface low into southern Iowa.
Read the full account →A boundary was pushing through the state with ongoing convection through central Iowa through the day. As the boundary neared the area, the convection intensified and impacted central and southern Iowa in the evening to early morning hours.
Read the full account →A boundary was pushing through the state with ongoing convection through central Iowa through the day. As the boundary neared the area, the convection intensified and impacted central and southern Iowa in the evening to early morning hours.
Read the full account →A boundary was pushing through the state with ongoing convection through central Iowa through the day. As the boundary neared the area, the convection intensified and impacted central and southern Iowa in the evening to early morning hours.
Read the full account →After a very brief reprieve from multiple days of activity, another round of storms greeted large parts of central Iowa during the very early morning hours of the 14th, through the rest of the morning, and into the afternoon.
Read the full account →After a very brief reprieve from multiple days of activity, another round of storms greeted large parts of central Iowa during the very early morning hours of the 14th, through the rest of the morning, and into the afternoon.
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