Flood, Lee
- When
- August 22, 8:15 PM CST
- Where
- Lee County, Ft Madison
- Reported by
- TRAINED SPOTTER
- Coordinates
- 40.642, -91.479 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
A trained spotter reported urban flooding in Ft. Madison
Flood in Iowa, August 22, 2001
Event summary of 08/22/01Scattered strong thunderstorms developed during the evening hours of August 22 along an east-west boundary located from Northeast Missouri through West-central Illinois. The combination of the front, moderately high CAPEs, vertical wind shear, and a vort-max moving through Eastern Iowa allowed severe thunderstorms to develop along the boundary.
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. 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
- None recorded
- 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 DVN wrote it up.
Event summary of 08/22/01Scattered strong thunderstorms developed during the evening hours of August 22 along an east-west boundary located from Northeast Missouri through West-central Illinois. The combination of the front, moderately high CAPEs, vertical wind shear, and a vort-max moving through Eastern Iowa allowed severe thunderstorms to develop along the boundary. Convergence along the boundary, along with persistent upward motion provided by the vort-max, allowed thunderstorms to train along the stationary boundary into the early morning hours of August 23. Excessive rainfall fell during this period, and produced street flooding in parts of extreme Southeast Iowa, as well as Northeast Missouri and West-central Illinois.
What forecasters said that day
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 Aug 22, 1:40 PM CST, 6 hours 35 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Aug 22, 1:40 PM CST, 6 hours 35 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL 240 PM CDT WED AUG 22 2001 .OVERVIEW...ANALYSIS SHOWS WEAK BOUNDARY MOVING SLOWLY SOUTHEAST FROM CENTRAL ILLINOIS TO WEAK LOW NEAR KALO...BACK TO KSUX AND SOUTHWEST TO KGCK. SATELLITE...RADARS SHOW BROKEN AREA OF DEVELOPING SHOWERS AND STORMS ALONG BOUNDARY...ESPECIALLY NEAR WEAK LOW. LATEST SURFACE ANALYSIS SUGGEST FAVORABLE CONDITIONS FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT AS CONVECTIVE TEMPERATURES NOW REACHED...SURFACE CAPES UP TO 3000 J/KG AHEAD OF AREA OF PRECITATION. SPC AGREES WITH POTENTIAL AS SEVERE WATCH JUST ISSUED FOR EASTERN 2/3 OR AREA TIL 8 PM. UPPER AIR AND PROFILERS SUPPORT VORT MAX EASTERN NEBRASKA HELPING TO KICK PRECIPITATION FOR MUCH OF CENTRAL IOWA. ...POPS TONIGHT WITH HEAVY RAIN POTENTIAL AND THEN CLEARING WITH ANOTHER TIMING OF MORE POPS DAY 2/3 MAIN ISSUES... .DIAGNOSIS AND DAY 1...ETA AGAIN INITIALIZED VERY POORLY WITH UPPER VORT MAX AND WORSE ON SURFACE BOUNDARIES AND PRECIPITATION...AVN VERIFIES OVERALL THE BEST WITH NGM CLOSE SECOND. THIS SUPPORTS TYPICAL LATE SUMMER CONVECTION EVENT WITH ISOLATED SEVERE AND ALSO POTENTIAL HEAVY RAINS WITH PRECIPITABLE WATER OF 1.5 TO 2.0. GO LIKELY SHOWERS AND STORMS TO END WEST TO EAST MAINLY BY EARLY OVERNIGHT HOURS WITH NORMAL WORDING FOR HEAVY RAINS AND SOME SEVERE POTENTIAL EARLY. SOME POST PRECIP CLOUDS TO CLEAR BY MID DAY THURSDAY WITH WEAK SURFACE GREAT LAKES HIGH. TEMPS WILL TAKE A GENERAL BLEND OF FWC/MAV BUT TAKE HIGH SIDE TOMORROW WITH CLEARING AND MARGINALLY LOWER HUMIDITIES TO SUPPORT MAX HEATING OF BL TEMPS. .DAY 2...LOTS OF MODEL VARIANCE WITH DEVELOPING WAVE TO SOUTHWEST AND WILL TAKE AVN SOLUTION WITH SOME INPUTS FROM ETA/UKMET. THUS... INCREASING CLOUDS WITH CHANCE OF RAIN SOUTHWEST SECTIONS LATE AND CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND SOME STORMS ALL AREAS FRIDAY NIGHT WITH TIMING UNCERTAINTY REASON NOT TO GOING WITH LIKELY AND HOPEFULLY BETTER IDEA NEXT 12-24 HOURS. TEMPS...SLIGHTLY ABOVE MAV/FWC OVERALL DUE TO TIMING OF CLOUDS AND AMOUNT OF DAYTIME SURFACE HEATING. .EXTENDED (SAT - WED)...LOTS OF MODEL VARIANCE ON TIMING OF CLOSED UTAH CIRCULATION MOVING ACROSS TO SUPPORT CHANCE POPS FOR NOW SATURDAY AND WILL TREND TOWARD UKMET VS VERY SLOW AVN WHICH APPEARS UNREASONABLE ON CLOSED LOW OVER AREA TIL MONDAY. THUS WILL ADJUST MEX/MAV GUIDANCE DAY 3 AND FOR FOLLOWING DAYS WILL TAKE OUT POPS TIL LATE TUE/WED WHEN NEXT SYSTEM APPROACHES. .DVN... IA...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH TIL 8 PM COUNTIES ALONG HIGHWAY 61. IL...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH TIL 8 PM. MO...NONE. NICHOLS
In the hours before
Special weather statement, Aug 22, 6:29 PM CST, 1 hour 46 minutes before
IAZ042-054-066>068-078-089-099-ILZ001-002-007-009-015>018-024>026- 034-035-230300- SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL 729 PM CDT WED AUG 22 2001 ...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH FOR NORTHWEST ILLINOIS AND EXTREME EASTERN IOWA CANCELED... SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH NUMBER 684...FOR NORTHWEST ILLINOIS...AND FAR EASTERN IOWA UNTIL 8 PM THIS EVENING...HAS BEEN CANCELED. THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES ARE NO LONGER UNDER A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH: IN NORTHWEST AND WEST CENTRAL ILLINOIS...JO DAVIESS...STEPHENSON... CARROLL...WHITESIDE...ROCK ISLAND...MERCER...HENRY...BUREAU... PUTNAM...HENDERSON...WARREN...HANCOCK...AND MCDONOUGH COUNTIES. IN FAR EASTERN IOWA: DUBUQUE...JACKSON...CLINTON...SCOTT...MUSCATINE...LOUISA...DES MOINES...AND LEE. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL DIMINISH OVER AREAS ALONG AND SOUTH OF THE HIGHWAY 34 CORRIDOR THROUGH 10 PM. UNTIL THEN... EXPECT HEAVY RAIN...DANGEROUS LIGHTNING...AND POSSIBLY SMALL HAIL... WITH THE STRONGER STORMS. HOWEVER...THE THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO REMAIN BELOW SEVERE LIMITS. KINNEY
Local storm report, Aug 22, 6:36 PM CST, 1 hour 39 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL
736 PM CDT WED AUG 22 2001
TIME(CDT) .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
0734 PM 2 N ELVASTON IL 1 INCH HAIL
08/22/01 HANCOCK REPORTED BY PUBLIC.Local storm report, Aug 22, 7:15 PM CST, 1 hour before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL
815 PM CDT WED AUG 22 2001
TIME(CDT) .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
0750 PM BENTLEY IL .75 INCH HAIL
08/22/01 HANCOCK REPORTED BY STORM
SPOTTER.Local storm report, Aug 22, 7:34 PM CST, 41 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL
834 PM CDT WED AUG 22 2001
TIME(CDT) .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
0643 PM NAUVOO IL WIND DAMAGE
08/22/01 HANCOCK POWER LINES DOWN.
REPORTED BY LAW
ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL.
0724 PM WARSAW IL WIND DAMAGE
08/22/01 HANCOCK POWER LINES DOWN.
REPORTED BY LAW
ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL.
0800 PM WARSAW IL WIND DAMAGE
08/22/01 HANCOCK MORE POWER LINES DOWN.
REPORTED BY LAW
ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL.Local storm report, Aug 22, 7:39 PM CST, 36 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL
839 PM CDT WED AUG 22 2001
TIME(CDT) .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
0824 PM CARTHAGE IL URBAN FLOODING
08/22/01 HANCOCK STREET FLOODING
REPORTED BY LAW
ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL.Local storm report, Aug 22, 7:41 PM CST, 34 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL
841 PM CDT WED AUG 22 2001
TIME(CDT) .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
0824 PM COUNTYWIDE IL SMALL STREAM FLOODING
08/22/01 HANCOCK WATER COVERING ROUTE 96
SOUTH OF HAMILTON AND
ROUTE 94 NORTH OF
CARTHAGE. REPORTED BY
LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL.The radar
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
Event by event
1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Flood
- Flooding that develops more slowly than a flash flood: rivers leaving their banks, or water standing over land for an extended time.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Lightning Strike in Wisconsin, August 22, 2001
- Heat in Texas, August 22, 2001
- Tropical Storm in Puerto Rico, August 22 to 23, 2001
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Indiana, August 22, 2001
- Flash Flooding and Hail in Michigan, August 22, 2001
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Illinois, August 22, 2001
- Flooding and Damaging Winds in Wisconsin, August 22, 2001
- Flood in Colorado, August 22, 2001
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Kansas, August 22, 2001
- Flooding and Hail in Kansas, August 22 to 23, 2001
- Tropical Storm in U.S. Virgin Islands, August 22 to 23, 2001
- Heavy Rain in Oregon, August 22 to 23, 2001
More
Every storm in Iowa in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyWarnings in Iowa, August 2001
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: 5266081.