Northwest Iowa — It was a wild weekend weather wise in the KIWA listening area. The National Weather Service in Sioux Falls reported multiple rounds of severe weather impacted the region through the Memorial Day weekend bringing widespread wind damage, large hail, and even a few tornado warnings.
The active weekend began late Saturday evening with a line of storms moving into central South Dakota that brought gusty winds. Additional storms formed during the early morning hours Sunday and eventually into southern Minnesota. This strong cluster of storms brought large hail to the western half of Sioux Falls and then wind further east.
The next round of storms moved through the region Sunday night into early morning, bringing very strong winds, occasional large hail, and a few brief tornadoes. The break in activity was short lived as additional storms formed by late morning on Memorial Day. The early to mid afternoon storms on Memorial Day carried a risk of all modes of severe weather. One final round of storms moved through during the early evening hours Monday bringing yet another round of strong wind.
The bulk of the storm reports came from Monday afternoon as thunderstorms moved through at 2:00 in the morning and continued all day into the evening hours. The main features were strong winds and hail. In the Monday afternoon go round Lake Park reported 1.25 inch hail with a location northwest of Okoboji reporting one and three-quarter inch hail. A report out of Marcus had 3/4 inch hail. Wind gust in excess of 50 miles per hour were common with a gust of 58 miles per hour 2 miles north east of Sheldon and a gust to 62 miles per hour in Ashton.
Heavy rains were also a feature of the storms. In downtown Sheldon the total for the weekend in the KIWA rain gage was 1.36 inches of much needed rain.
