Tornado and Hail in Iowa, March 30, 1998

A strong cold front front extended from central Wisconsin across central Iowa into eastern Kansas during the early afternoon hours. There was a great contrast across the front with temperatures in the upper 70s to low 80s ahead of the front, with 30s and 40s behind the front. The air mass ahead of the front was quite unstable with surface dew point temperatures around 60 degrees. Deep moisture was in place across the state. An upper level disturbance moved northeast along the front and set off thunderstorms in the vicinity of the cold front. The storms raced northeast at nearly 60 MPH. The main weather threat with the storms was hail with numerous reports of three quarter to one inch diameter hail. Hail covered the ground south of Waterloo. Hail of nearly golf ball size fell just west of Des Moines near Waukee. Though there were gusty winds associated with the storms, very few locations reported severe winds. There were several reports of high winds over southeast Iowa. Most of the wind reports came from Wapello, Mahaska, and Davis Counties. One report of 60 MPH winds was received in Wapello County at Eddyville. Winds of 70 MPH were reported over eastern Davis County, where a barn was destroyed, and in Mahaska County where damage occurred in New Sharon. The line of storms did produce one tornado. The tornado touched down briefly west of Ottumwa, damaging a house there.