Tornado and Damaging Wind in Iowa, June 2, 1995

The same upper level low pressure area mentioned above continued to influence the weather over Iowa again on the 2nd. Temperatures at 500 mb remained around the -15° C range. Thunderstorms formed by mid day. A small tornado touched down briefly northeast of Ottumwa. It lifted a pop-up camper off of its jacks, but there was no other significant damage. During the later afternoon hours, thunderstorms spread south and east. The weather features were rather slow moving and as a result heavy rainfall occurred in Louisa and Des Moines Counties. In one hours time, 4.65 inches of rainfall was recorded in Columbus Junction. Parts of Des Moines County received five inches of rainfall in a short period of time. The heavy rainfall produced flash flooding. Two children were injured indirectly in Des Moines County as their mother lost control of the car while driving into the flood waters. The children, two and three years of age, were not fastened in their car seats. One was thrown in the car, the other was thrown through the window and into the ditch. Both were taken to a local hospital and treated for minor injuries. A citation was written charging the mother with failure to restrain her children. Flooding was also widespread in the urban areas. Burlington was quite hard hit. High winds from one of the storms tore part of the roof off of a house in Burlington. Also, in Burlington, lightning struck an electrical service box at a sewer station causing about $2000 in damage.