Alert archive / Iowa / Flash Flood Warnings in 2003

Flash Flood Warning 9, NWS Quad Cities, IA

July 9, 2003Lee County, Iowa

NWS Quad Cities, IA issued this flash flood warning at Jul 9, 2003, 8:45 PM CDT for Lee County, Iowa. It was in force for 6 hr. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Jul 9, 2003, 8:45 PM CDT (01:45 UTC)
Expired: Jul 10, 2003, 2:30 AM CDT
In force: 6 hr
Issued by: NWS Quad Cities, IA
Area: Counties, with a storm outline in the text

County Lee County, IA

The radar

The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 132 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 01:46 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

The nearest sounding before it

Davenport, (KDVN), launched 00:00Z, 1.8 hours before the alert went out and 137 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 1258 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -58 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 757 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 154 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 228 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.9
Supercell composite: 5.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

000 
WGUS53 KDVN 100146
FFWDVN
IAC111-100730-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL
845 PM CDT WED JUL 9 2003

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN THE QUAD CITIES HAS ISSUED A

* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR...
  LEE COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST IOWA

* UNTIL 230 AM CDT

* AT 842 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED
  THUNDERSTORMS PRODUCING VERY HEAVY RAIN WERE LOCATED OVER THE
  WARNED AREA.

* THUNDERSTORMS WERE CONTINUOUSLY REDEVELOPING AND MOVING OVER
  PORTIONS OF THE WARNED AREA...LEADING TO VERY HIGH RAINFALL RATES
  AND THE LIKELIHOOD OF FLASH FLOODING IN THE WARNED AREA. FLASH 
  FLOODING IS LIKELY.  PEOPLE IN AREAS ALONG THE LITTLE SUGAR 
  CREEK AND SUGAR CREEK SHOULD MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND NOW. 

BE ESPECIALLY CAUTIOUS AT NIGHT WHEN IT IS HARDER TO RECOGNIZE THE
DANGERS OF FLOODS AND FLASH FLOODS. IF FLASH FLOODING IS OBSERVED...
QUICKLY MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND TO ESCAPE FLOOD WATERS.

LAT...LON 4060 9141 4043 9143 4060 9170 4081 9171
          4072 9114

$$

ERVIN

2 follow-up statements

000 
WGUS73 KDVN 100520
FFSDVN
IAC111-100730-

FLASH FLOOD STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL
1220 AM CDT THU JUL 10 2003

...A FLASH FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES UNTIL 230 AM CDT FOR LEE COUNTY IN
SOUTHEAST IOWA...

AT 1220 AM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED
HEAVY RAINFALL HAS ENDED ACROSS THE WARNED AREA...BUT FLASH FLOODING
CONTINUES TO OCCUR. THE AREA MOST AT RISK OF SEEING FLASH FLOOD 
CONDITIONS IS ACROSS SOUTHWESTERN LEE COUNTY...WHERE NATIONAL 
WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATES THAT UP TO 3 INCHES OF RAIN 
HAS FALLEN THIS PAST EVENING.  DUE TO THE SATURATED GROUND...RUNOFF
WILL CONTINUE FROM THIS RAIN THROUGH THE EARLY MORNING HOURS.

REPORT FLASH FLOODING TO YOUR NEAREST LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY...
FOR RELAY TO THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN THE QUAD CITIES.

$$

ERVIN

000 
WGUS73 KDVN 100743
FFSDVN
IAC111-100815-

FLASH FLOOD STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL
240 AM CDT THU JUL 10 2003

...THE FLASH FLOOD WARNING WHICH WAS IN EFFECT UNTIL 230 AM CDT
FOR...LEE COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST IOWA...HAS BEEN ALLOWED TO EXPIRE...

THE HEAVY RAINFALL HAS SUBSIDED OVER THE WARNED AREA. STREAMS AND
CREEKS HAVE RECEDED OR WERE BEGINNING TO RECEDE...ENDING THE FLOOD
THREAT. EVEN THOUGH STREAMS AND CREEKS WERE RECEDING...SOME ROADWAYS
MAY STILL BE COVERED WITH WATER. MOTORISTS ARE ADVISED TO AVOID
DRIVING THROUGH FLOODED ROADWAYS.

$$

NICHOLS

The office that day

Everything else NWS Quad Cities, IA issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 9, 7:12 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Van Buren	48 min
Jul 9, 7:18 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	DVN	Van Buren	6 hr
Jul 9, 7:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Keokuk	52 min
Jul 9, 8:26 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Jefferson	34 min
Jul 9, 8:42 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Henry	48 min
Jul 9, 8:59 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DVN	Henry	31 min
Jul 9, 9:07 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DVN	Des Moines	38 min
Jul 9, 9:22 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Lee	38 min

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in Iowa, 2003 Every flash flood warning in 2003

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.