Hail, Decatur
- When
- May 9, 9:28 AM CST
- Where
- Decatur County, 1 mi S of Davis City
- Measured
- 1.75 in hail
- Property damage
- $10,000
- Coordinates
- 40.620, -93.800
Hail in Iowa, May 9, 1996
The same synoptic situation what was in place the previous night remained in place during the morning of the 9th. Thunderstorms back developed in much the same area where they had developed the night before.
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it. 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
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $10,000
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 1
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.
What happened
The episode as NWS DMX wrote it up.
The same synoptic situation what was in place the previous night remained in place during the morning of the 9th. Thunderstorms back developed in much the same area where they had developed the night before. CAPE values were around 3000 J/kg with lifted indices around -6 degrees C. across the area. Thunderstorms fired and quickly became severe. Most of the storms contained hail, much of it gulf ball in size. The largest hail was 2 inches in diameter, and that fell in Appanoose County. The thunderstorms evevntually moved east of the area and weakened. The freezing level was quite high, 13,200 feet over the area. That combined with a nearly saturated atmosphere resulted in very high VIL values on the WSR-88D. The storms that produced the larger hail indicated VIL values near 80 Kg/m/m.
The radar
The Des Moines radar (KDMX), 124 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 15:29 UTC.
Event by event
1 hail. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Hail
- Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Tornado in Kansas, May 9, 1996
- Lightning Strike in Illinois, May 9, 1996
- Flash Flood in Michigan, May 9 to 10, 1996
- Hail in Kansas, May 9, 1996
- Tornado in Iowa, May 9, 1996
- Hail in Kansas, May 9, 1996
- Hail in Kansas, May 9, 1996
- Damaging Wind in Iowa, May 9, 1996
- Flash Flood in Iowa, May 9, 1996
- Tornado in Kansas, May 9, 1996
- Flooding in Iowa, May 9 to 13, 1996
- Flooding in Tennessee, May 9 to 23, 1996
More
Every storm in Iowa in 1996Every state in 1996This day in weather historyWarnings in Iowa, May 1996
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: 5544238.