Flooding in Iowa, June 27 to 29, 1999

The northwest sections of the HSA received heavy rains during the overnight hours of the 26th and early 27th. The rainfall, which developed along a slow moving cold front, was concentrated in the upper Des Moines River basin. Estherville, located in the upper reaches of the basin, picked up a 24 hours total of 2.04 inches. Rains in excess of an inch also fell over parts of the upper Raccoon basin, Perry for example received 1.54 inches. Additional significant rainfall on the 27th and 28th occurred along the same front over the west central and northeast parts of the HSA. Moderate rises were observed on a few rivers as a result of these rains, but only the North Raccoon near Jefferson briefly exceeded flood state. Damage from this event was once again quite minor as rivers only flooded areas that normally flood anyway. Statewide statistics for the month, provided by the iowa State Climatologist, indicated that June of 1999 was wetter than normal, but not extremely so. With 5.27 inches of rain, it was the 46th wettest June in the past 127 years of Iowa weather records. The wettest areas were in the northwest and west central sections of the state. All agricultural districts had above normal rainfall except for the south central district, which was just slightly below normal. At 69.7 degrees, the state wide average temperatures were very close to normal for June, falling about one half degree below normal.