Sheldon, Iowa — Damage from the thunderstorms that moved through on Wednesday evening was very spotty, as were the precip reports.
That’s the information from area emergency managers and the National Weather Service. The Sheldon area and areas to the south and east appear to have taken the brunt of the storm.
We received one report of a split tree at 4th Street and 8th Avenue in Sheldon, about a block southeast of Lewis Family Drug. Feel free to let us know on Facebook what kind of damage or precip you had in your area.
Dark clouds started gathering in the Sheldon area in the 1:00 p.m. hour, and eventually rain started falling. By 3:40 p.m., the storms had trained over the same location long enough for the National Weather Service to issue a flash flood warning for western O`Brien and east central Sioux counties until 6:45 p.m. O’Brien County Emergency Manager Jared Johnson reported street flooding in Sheldon around 3:00 p.m. He said that between 1 and 3 inches of rain had fallen at that time. The weather service noted that additional rainfall amounts of 1 to 2 inches were possible in the warned area, and that flash flooding was occurring at that time.
Only 12 minutes later, a severe thunderstorm warning was issued for east central Sioux and northwestern O`Brien counties until 4:15 p.m. The warning noted that at 3:52 p.m., a severe thunderstorm was located over Hospers moving northeast at 20 mph. They said the main threat of these storms was 60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail, and to expect hail damage to vehicles and wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. Both Sheldon and Archer were listed as locations the storm would affect.
Sioux County Emergency Manager Nate Huisinga agrees that the storms were spotty, but stayed in the same areas for long periods of time. He says there were reports of hail damage to fields east of Hospers and reports of three to four inches of rain in a similar area, according to radar.
Other locations in northwest Iowa received little to no rain and light to no damage from the storms. We have reports of only a few drops of rain in both Orange City and George, and five hundredths of an inch in Rock Rapids.
