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The Dexes / Lightning Report / 5394735

Eventdex · Lightning Report

STORY

5394735 · 41.900, -93.700

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The record

Everything the slot carries, as measured. Series arrays are drawn above and listed here in full.

event_typeLightning
ncei_event_id5,394,735
episode_id1,168,888
begin_utc2004-05-23T02:00:00+00:00
end_utc2004-05-23T02:00:00+00:00
stateIOWA
cz_typeC
cz_nameSTORY
lat41.900
lon-93.700
end_lat41.900
end_lon-93.700
deaths_direct0
deaths_indirect0
injuries_direct2
injuries_indirect0
wfo_sourceEMERGENCY MANAGER
episode_narrativeThe synoptic situation was very similar to what it was the previous day. A complex weather situation was in place due to the convection from the previous night. An outflow boundary extended east to west across northern Missouri. The synoptic frontal boundary extended from central Nebraska across northern Iowa. The air was clear over Iowa during the day, allowing for temperatures to recover. Dew point values also recovered quite rapidly with readings in the upper 60s to low 70s by the late afternoon hours. Lifted indices dropped into the -5 to -10 C. range by evening with CAPE values approaching 5000 J/kg. By the evening hours, the frontal boundary and outflow boundary had converged and were located along Interstate 80. Explosive thunderstorm development took place during the very late afternoon and evening hours in spite of the weak shear profile. Discrete supercells formed in a narrow line along Interstate 80 from near Des Moines on west. The storms became tornadic quickly. To add insult to injury, a strong thunderstorm complex formed over Nebraska and moved east along the line of convection over Iowa. As the event took shape, all modes of severe weather occurred. The storms developed so rapidly that there was little more than a half hour from the first hail and wind report to the first tornado touchdown. Hail and high wind reports were too numerous to mention individually here. Numerous reports of golf ball size hail were received. Boone and Story Counties reported some of the largest hail with the event as baseball size hail pelted the are. There was one report of very large hail northwest of Slater in Story County. Hail five and one half inches in diameter punched 8 holes through a steel roof. There was severe house siding and roof damage in the area. There were numerous tornadoes, especially in the central Iowa Iowa. At one point there were several supercells around the metropolitan Des Moines area. Two of the stronger tornadoes touched down west and south of Des Moines. Fortunately, most of the tornado tracks were over open areas and resulted in little damage. High winds became a problem, especially after sunset, as the complex from Nebraska moved in. The system became more of a derecho during the late night hours. Eighty plus MPH winds pelted southwest Iowa and downed barns and several buildings in Adams and Cass Counties. A beta bow element formed in central Iowa shortly before midnight. The bow echo produced a measured wind gust of 106 MPH in northern Warren County. The high winds continued to push east along Interstate 80 for the next hour or so before it started to weaken. The other major problem was with heavy rain. The convection from the previous night set the stage by saturating soils. The echos trained for several hours across central Iowa with very heavy rainfall. Rainfall rates of 4 to 5 inches per hour were common under the heavier cells. Several locations received 2 to 5 inch rainfalls in under two hours, resulting in widespread flash flooding. Reports of major highways being inundated by water were common. By the end of the night, a swath of 4 to 9 inch rainfall was evident north of Interstate 80. Longer term river flooding became a major problem by the morning of the 23rd. There were two lightning related injuries. Two people were injured when they were struck by lightning out of doors in Nevada. The lightning struck close by as they were carrying groceries into their home. The jolt caused them to fall, resulting in laceration to the head.
year2,004

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