Tornado and Hail in Iowa, September 13, 2000

Once again, very warm and humid air spread over Iowa with temperatures in the 80s to mid 90s during the afternoon of the 13th. The airmass was again very capped with 700 mb temperatures of 12 degrees C. or higher over most of the area. As a result, thunderstorms had a hard time developing. Once the thunderstorms did develop they became severe quite quickly. There was one tornado reported during the early part of the thunderstorm development. A brief touchdown occurred southeast of Ayrshire in Palo Alto County. No significant damage was reported with this tornado. The main severe weather feature with these storms was hail, though there were several reports of high winds as well. The big story was hail of an inch or more in diameter, with frequent reports of hail up to golf ball in size. Considerable crop damage was reported with soybeans being hard hit. Some reports indicate up to 50% of the soybean pots cracked open by the hail. Golf ball size hail war reported ankle deep east of Ellsworth in Hamilton County. Hail fell for a 30 minute period in Wright County at Eagle Grove. High winds also caused tree, power line, and crop damage. Trees were toppled in several locations by winds of 60 to 70 MPH. The winds also caused considerable lodging of the corn crop due in part to stalk rot brought about by the very dry weather. The down of Duncombe in Webster County was hard hit with considerable roof damage reported there.