Event summary for 4/15/01: High instability made atmospheric conditions ripe for small hail and funnel clouds from mid afternoon through early evening. Hail from 1/4 to 1/2 inch was common over eastern Iowa and northwest Illinois, and spotters also reported several funnels, only one that touched down as a brief tornado.
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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.
The episode as NWS DVN wrote it up.
Event summary for 4/15/01: High instability made atmospheric conditions ripe for small hail and funnel clouds from mid afternoon through early evening. Hail from 1/4 to 1/2 inch was common over eastern Iowa and northwest Illinois, and spotters also reported several funnels, only one that touched down as a brief tornado.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Quad Cities, IA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 15, 1:30 PM CST, 45 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL 230 PM CDT SUN APR 15 2001 ADVERTISED COOL DOWN IS EVOLVING AS FORECAST. INITIAL WIND SHIFT REACHING THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER THIS AFTERNOON...WITH THE COLD AIR TRAILING OVER MINNESOTA AND SOUTH DAKOTA. COLD AIR WILL SURGE SOUTH TONIGHT...MAKING FOR A WINDY AND COLD DAY MONDAY. FIRST QUESTION IS...HOW COLD? THICKNESSES AND 850 MB TEMPS AROUND -8 SUGGEST HIGHS IN THE 40S AROUND MIDDAY THEN FALLING TEMPERATURES FOR THE AFTERNOON AS A REINFORCING SHOT OF COLD AIR MOVES IN. INCREASING AFTERNOON CLOUDS WILL KEEP TEMPS DOWN...AND WITH RECENT MODEL TREND TOWARD COLDER TEMPS...WILL UNDERCUT GUIDANCE HIGHS FOR MONDAY. NEXT QUESTION IS...HOW WINDY? GRADIENT TIGHTENS MONDAY AS A VORT SWINGS INTO THE GREAT LAKES. EXPECT GUSTS NEAR 30 MPH BY AFTERNOON. GIVEN THE TIME OF YEAR...MAY NEED TO INCLUDE WIND CHILLS IN ZONES. IN TERMS OF PRECIP...NOTHING THROUGH MONDAY MORNING BUT SHOWERS POSSIBLE MONDAY AFTERNOON WITH THE SECONDARY SURGE AS VORT ENERGY ROTATES INTO THE GREAT LAKES. THICKNESSES AND FORECAST SOUNDINGS STILL SUGGEST MAINLY SNOW...BUT WILL KEEP MIX FOR THE AFTERNOON SINCE INITIALLY SURFACE TEMPS TOO WARM FOR ALL SNOW. LINGERING PRECIP...SNOW SHOWERS...POSSIBLE THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT... THEN CLEARING TUESDAY AS THE RIDGE WORKS ITS WAY IN. NORTHWEST UPPER FLOW PATTERN HOLDS THROUGH MIDWEEK...KEEPING TEMPS COOL. BY THURSDAY...WE BEGIN TO TRANSITION TO A MORE ZONAL FLOW... BRINGING GRADUALLY WARMING TEMPS FOR THE END OF THE WORK WEEK. NEXT CHANCE FOR SERIOUS THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE FRIDAY WITH A WARM FRONT AND SURFACE LOW TRACKING INTO THE MIDWEST. BY LATE SATURDAY WE WILL HAVE TRANSITIONED COMPLETELY INTO SOUTHWEST FLOW...WITH ANOTHER LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM PROGGED TO LIFT OUT MONDAY...BRINGING ANOTHER CHANCE OF RAIN. .DVN... IA...NONE. IL...NONE. MO...NONE. 33
The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 42 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 20:12 UTC.
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
A trained storm spotter reported a brief tornado touchdown. There were no injuries and no damage reported.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Iowa in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Iowa, 2001Warnings in Iowa, April 2001
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: 5243447.