Hail, Clarke
- When
- May 16, 6:33 PM CST
- Where
- Clarke County, 2 mi S of Osceola
- Measured
- 1.75 in hail
- Property damage
- $10,000
- Coordinates
- 41.000, -93.780
Hail in Iowa, May 16, 1997
A cold front moved southeast across the state during the late afternoon and evening hours. Temperatures ahead of the front were in the 80s to low 90s.
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.
A cold front moved southeast across the state during the late afternoon and evening hours. Temperatures ahead of the front were in the 80s to low 90s. The air mass became quite unstable ahead of the front with Lifted Indices around -6 C. The air was quite dry in the low levels, thus thunderstorms development was quite scattered with only isolated severe weather reported. Most of the storms that produced hail only produced pea to marble size hail. However isolated reports of dime size hail were received. Dime size hail accumulated to a depth of 2 inches near Murray in Clarke County. Trees were partly stripped by golf ball size hail south of Osceola, also in Clarke County.
The radar
The Des Moines radar (KDMX), 81 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 00:35 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
- Strong Wind in New York, May 16, 1997
- Cold in Michigan, May 16, 1997
- Damaging Wind in Kansas, May 16, 1997
- Strong Wind in Pennsylvania, May 16, 1997
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Missouri, May 16, 1997
- Flash Flood in Texas, May 16, 1997
- Damaging Wind in Virginia, May 16, 1997
- Hail in Kansas, May 16, 1997
- Hail in Kansas, May 16, 1997
- Hail in Kansas, May 16, 1997
- Hail in Kansas, May 16, 1997
- Hail in Colorado, May 16, 1997
More
Every storm in Iowa in 1997Every state in 1997This day in weather historyWarnings in Iowa, May 1997
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: 5613751.