Hail and Damaging Winds in Iowa, May 13, 1995

Name: Hail and Damaging Winds in Iowa, May 13, 1995
Start: 1995-05-13T09:55
End: 1995-05-13T16:45
Location: Iowa

May 13, 1995 · 22 events in 12 counties and zones

20 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind, as filed by the National Weather Service.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 22 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $152,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 22

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

20 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Lee

When: May 13, 9:55 AM CST
Where: Lee County, New Boston
Measured: 0.75 in hail
Property damage: $2,000
Coordinates: 40.642, -91.479 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

A mesoscale convective system moved across northern Missouri during the night of the 12th and early morning of the 13th. The north edge of the storms clipped extreme southeast Iowa during the mid morning hours. Dime-size hail was reported north of New Boston as the storms passed.

Hail, Lee

When: May 13, 9:55 AM CST
Where: Lee County, Fort Madison
Measured: 0.75 in hail
Coordinates: 40.642, -91.479 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Hail, Wright

When: May 13, 12:55 PM CST
Where: Wright County, Goldfield
Measured: 2 in hail
Property damage: $10,000
Coordinates: 42.733, -93.735 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Hail, Wright

When: May 13, 12:58 PM CST
Where: Wright County, Goldfield
Measured: 1 in hail
Property damage: $5,000
Coordinates: 42.733, -93.735 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Hail, Hancock

When: May 13, 1:07 PM CST
Where: Hancock County, Klemme
Measured: 1 in hail
Property damage: $5,000
Coordinates: 43.082, -93.734 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Hail, Hancock

When: May 13, 1:12 PM CST
Where: Hancock County, Klemme
Measured: 1.75 in hail
Property damage: $10,000
Coordinates: 43.082, -93.734 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Hail, Cerro Gordo

When: May 13, 1:26 PM CST
Where: Cerro Gordo County, Ventura
Measured: 1 in hail
Property damage: $5,000
Coordinates: 43.082, -93.261 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Hail, Wright

When: May 13, 1:45 PM CST
Where: Wright County, Dows
Measured: 1.75 in hail
Property damage: $75,000
Coordinates: 42.733, -93.735 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Hail, Franklin

When: May 13, 1:57 PM CST
Where: Franklin County, Alexander
Measured: 1 in hail
Property damage: $5,000
Coordinates: 42.733, -93.262 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Hail, Van Buren

When: May 13, 2:35 PM CST
Where: Van Buren County, Farmington
Measured: 0.75 in hail
Coordinates: 40.753, -91.950 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Hail, Van Buren

When: May 13, 2:35 PM CST
Where: Van Buren County, Farmington
Measured: 0.8 in hail
Property damage: $2,000
Coordinates: 40.753, -91.950 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Hail, Lee

When: May 13, 2:54 PM CST
Where: Lee County, Donnellson
Measured: 0.8 in hail
Coordinates: 40.642, -91.479 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

The supercell storm that produced this hail developed over Clark County, Missouri and produced a funnel cloud over Fort Madison, Iowa before it moved into west-central Illinois and preceded to produce a large tornado.

Hail, Lee

When: May 13, 2:54 PM CST
Where: Lee County, Donnellson
Measured: 0.88 in hail
Property damage: $5,000
Coordinates: 40.642, -91.479 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Hail, Pottawattamie

When: May 13, 3:55 PM CST
Where: Pottawattamie County, Bentley
Measured: 2 in hail
Coordinates: 41.337, -95.542 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Thunderstorm Wind, Emmet

When: May 13, 4:00 PM CST
Where: Emmet County, Estherville Airport
Measured: 53 kt (61 mph)
Property damage: $1,000
Coordinates: 43.378, -94.678 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Hail, Franklin

When: May 13, 4:01 PM CST
Where: Franklin County, Dows
Measured: 1.75 in hail
Property damage: $10,000
Coordinates: 42.733, -93.262 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Hail, Hamilton

When: May 13, 4:01 PM CST
Where: Hamilton County, Kamrar
Measured: 1.75 in hail
Property damage: $10,000
Coordinates: 42.384, -93.707 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Thunderstorm Wind, Emmet

When: May 13, 4:12 PM CST
Where: Emmet County, Estherville Airport
Measured: 52 kt (60 mph)
Property damage: $1,000
Coordinates: 43.378, -94.678 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Hail, Franklin

When: May 13, 4:15 PM CST
Where: Franklin County, Chapin
Measured: 0.75 in hail
Property damage: $1,000
Coordinates: 42.733, -93.262 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Hail, Butler

When: May 13, 4:35 PM CST
Where: Butler County, Greene
Measured: 0.75 in hail
Property damage: $1,000
Coordinates: 42.732, -92.790 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Hail, Floyd

When: May 13, 4:40 PM CST
Where: Floyd County, Marblerock
Measured: 0.75 in hail
Property damage: $2,000
Coordinates: 43.060, -92.789 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Hail, Chickasaw

When: May 13, 4:45 PM CST
Where: Chickasaw County, Ionia
Measured: 0.75 in hail
Property damage: $2,000
Coordinates: 43.060, -92.318 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

An intense storm system moved out of the southwest United States northeast across the plains. The center of the surface low tracked across far northwest Iowa into southern Minnesota by the afternoon of the 14th. The dry slot moved north ahead of the low and had punched into Iowa by sunrise on the 13th. The combination of cooling aloft and the afternoon heating destabilized the atmosphere. Thunderstorms erupted during the afternoon along the nose of the dry slot from northwest Iowa across the eastern counties. Afternoon CAPE values were in the 3500 J-kg-1 range with helicity between 400-650 m2-s-2 around the time the storms developed. The main severe event with these storms was hail. There were numerous reports of hail in the one to two inch diameter range. This was especially true over the northern Iowa counties closer to the upper level low pressure system. Golf ball-size hail caused considerable damage to the greens at a golf course in Dows. Most of the hail over the eastern counties was around an inch or less in diameter. Just about all of the storms produced hail of at least pea- to marble-size, along with winds gusts in the 40 to 50 mph range. There was one funnel cloud reported over northern Iowa. The funnel cloud occurred west of Mason City, in Cerro Gordo County.

What these are

Hail: Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.
Thunderstorm Wind: Winds from a thunderstorm of 50 knots (58 mph) or more, or lower winds that caused damage or casualties. Measured gusts are marked MG, estimated EG.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Iowa in 1995 Every state in 1995 This day in weather history Warnings in Iowa, May 1995

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 10324397, 10324398, 10324202, 10324203, 10324496, 10324497, 10321474, 10324204, 10321620, 10323696, 10323697, 10324399, 10324400, 10323819, 10321775, 10321621, 10321745, 10321776, 10321622, 10322073, 10321614, 10321518.