Sheldon, Iowa — The Weather Channel is calling the storm that passed through northwest Iowa early on Monday morning, a “derecho.” That’s a long-lived line of thunderstorms with sustained strong winds.
The National Weather Service would have to agree — although amount of damage associated with Monday’s storm is usually associated with tornadoes, meteorologist Phil Schumacher says there were no tornadoes in the Sheldon area.
Schumacher says they checked damage on a number of properties.
He says this damage should be a reminder that not all severe thunderstorm warnings are created equal. He says people need to listen to the warning, as sometimes they’re advising of strong winds, sometimes it’s large hail, and sometimes it’s heavy rain — and what preparations you take may be different as well.
He says that due to the fact that there was little to no hail with this storm, crop damage was minimal, except where the winds blew the crops flat. Schumacher says he saw very few damaged crops this time.
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