29-04-2025
Beautiful sunset as atmosphere stays capped: Monday storm recap
DES MOINES, Iowa — Severe storms moved through Central Iowa but stayed focused in northern Iowa, where the highest risk was located for the day. A few isolated storms crossed central Iowa later in the evening and brought some severe wind gusts.
Temperatures on Monday rose well above average to the upper 70s and low 80s. Skies stayed cloudy through much of the day in Central Iowa.
Severe weather began by late afternoon in Northwest Iowa and crossed the state along the Minnesota border. This brought numerous hail reports in northern Iowa and a few tornado warnings. Scott Johnson in Swea City shared the picture below of hail that fell in that Kossuth County town.
Winds were a concern throughout the day. We had strong south winds ahead of the cold front with numerous gusts over 40 mph.
You'll notice the 62 mph gust reported in Ames. This was associated with the severe storm that moved through Story County last night. Lamoni also had a strong thunderstorm gust of over 60 mph.
Meteorologists were closely focused on the upper layers of the atmosphere where a warm cap of temperatures prevented storms from firing in Central Iowa.
This is a look at the Weather Balloon launch and sounding out of Omaha on Monday afternoon. It shows a warm layer of air in the upper atmosphere above. It's where the red line bends back to the right and flattens out. This is a visual representation of an atmospheric cap.
Ingredients including wind shear, atmospheric energy and high dewpoints were in place Monday, but the cold front and lifting mechanism to get above the cap arrived later, as the ingredients of wind shear, energy and dewpoints started to decrease across our area. Because of that, the storms stayed isolated as they crossed Central Iowa through Monday evening. This is a good thing!
Instead, Central Iowa witnesses anti-crespecular rays shooting across the sky, as shadows were cast by the billowing cumulonimbus clouds in western Iowa. Click Here for an explainer and what causes Crespecular Rays. Check out more Monday evening pictures in our photolink here.
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