Name: Flooding in Iowa, June 5 to 7, 2001
Start: 2001-06-05T03:00
End: 2001-06-07T18:00
Location: Iowa

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 4 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

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $20,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 4

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 DMX wrote it up.

June 2001 in the Des Moines Hydrologic Service Area (HSA) was more like two different months in one, with a wet and cool first half and a dry and increasingly warm second half. Overall, it was about normal in terms of temperature and precipitation although there was considerable spatial variation in the rainfall. The first significant precipitation event occurred from the 5th to the 6th as cool stratiform precipitation and few mixed showers produced light to moderate rainfall ranging from 0.25" to 1.00" across the area. Little flooding took place, however rivers in parts of south central Iowa did rise slightly above flood stage.

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 Des Moines, IA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jun 5, 2:55 AM CST, 5 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 5, 2:55 AM CST, 5 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA
355 AM CDT TUE JUN 5 2001

THE FORECAST PROBLEM TODAY WILL BE EXTENT AND AMOUNT OF RAINFALL.
INITIAL ROUND OF TSRA IS PUSHING THROUGH THE ERN HALF OF THE CWA
ATTM AND SHOULD MOVE OUT BY 6 AM.  MCS FORMED OVR NCEN KS IN AN AREA
OF STRONG WAA.  THIS COMPLEX IS MOVG NE INTO IA BUT IT WILL LIKELY
CLIP ONYL THE SERN ZONES...WHERE THE FIRST ROUND OF STORMS WAS A BIT
MORE SCATTERED.  I HAVE OPTED TO CANCEL THE FLASH FLOOD WATCH FOR
THE MORNING HOURS FOR A COUPLE OF REASONS...THE INITIAL ISSUANCE OF
THE WATCH WAS BASED ON STORMS DEVELOPING MORE OVER SRN IA AND MOVING
EAST OR SE.  THE STORMS DEVELOPED OVER WEST CENTRAL IA AND MOVED
NE.  THERE WAS SOME BACKBUILDING OF STORMS BUT THE BRINT OF THE RAIN
FROM THIS FIRST ROUND WILL NOT FALL INTO THE SRN TWO TIERS OF
COUNTIES.  FLASH FLOOD GUIDANCE FOR FAR SRN IA IS AROUND THREE
QUARTERS OF AN INCH BUT AGAIN THIS IS IN AN AREA WHERE MOST OF THE
RAIN WAS HIT OR MISS.  THE FURTHER NORTH YOU GO THE FFG VALUES GO
INTO THE 2-3 INCH RANGE.  EVEN IF THE MCS OVR NCEN KS CLIPS SRN
IA...WHICH I EXPECT IT TO DO...IT IS RATHER PROGRESSIVE AND RAINFALL
TOTALS SHOULD MISS FFG VALUES.

ETA HAS A FAIRLY GOOD HANDLE ON THINGS...MOVING THE WRN HI PLAINS
LOW NORTH WHILE THE LAST OF SEVERAL SHORTWAVES EJECTS FROM THE BASE
OF THE LOW INTO THE UPPER MIDWEST.  IT LOOKED TO ME THOUGH THAT
AFTER THE MORNINGS CONVECTION IT WOULD TAKE SOME TIME TO GET GOING
AGAIN SO I THINK A FAIR PORTION OF THE AFTERNOON WOULD BE DRY.  THE
LAST SHORTWAVE THEN PULLS ACROSS THE CWA TONIGHT AND THE RIDGE OVR
THE W FINALLY HINTS AT SUMMER TIME TEMEPRATURES AND SOME DRYING
THOUGH NOW THE MODELS BRING A VORT MAX ACROSS LATE FRI/EARLY SAT
THEN AGAIN ON MONDAY.  MWL STAY THE COURSE WITH THE FFA.  TSTMS
GOING ABT AS XPCTD WITH THETA-E CONV MAX MOVG INTO NERN NEB ON A GUD
H8 JET AND 18 DPS.  TSTMS FIRING NICELY AND ATTM MOVG NWD.  THOT OF
KS CNVCTN TAKING OVR AND LMTG MSTR, BUT THAT IS NOT THE CASE AS CAP
NOT REALLY BRKG.  LTST RUC CONFIRMS PREV WITH DECENT S/WV (VSBL ON
CUR H2O VAP) MOVG INTO IA ARND 09Z.  SVR THREAT MINIMUL, HVY RAFL
LKLY WITH THIS SCENARIO.

.DSM...NONE.

FAB

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

4 flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Flood, Clarke

When: June 5, 3:00 AM CST to June 7, 6:00 PM CST
Where: Clarke forecast zone
Property damage: $5,000
Reported by: OFFICIAL NWS OBS.
Coordinates: 41.029, -93.785 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Flood, Decatur

When: June 5, 3:00 AM CST to June 7, 6:00 PM CST
Where: Decatur forecast zone
Property damage: $5,000
Reported by: OFFICIAL NWS OBS.
Coordinates: 40.738, -93.786 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Flood, Lucas

When: June 5, 3:00 AM CST to June 7, 6:00 PM CST
Where: Lucas forecast zone
Property damage: $5,000
Reported by: OFFICIAL NWS OBS.
Coordinates: 41.029, -93.328 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Flood, Wayne

When: June 5, 3:00 AM CST to June 7, 6:00 PM CST
Where: Wayne forecast zone
Property damage: $5,000
Reported by: OFFICIAL NWS OBS.
Coordinates: 40.740, -93.327 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

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

More

Every storm in Iowa in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Iowa, June 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: 5246838, 5246839, 5246840, 5246841.