Flooding in Iowa, March 15, 2001

Name: Flooding in Iowa, March 15, 2001
Start: 2001-03-15T09:00
End: 2001-03-15T16:15
Location: Iowa

March 15, 2001 · NWS DMX · 2 events in 2 counties and zones

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 2 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

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $75,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 2

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.

A large area of rain spread north and west into Iowa during the early morning hours of the 15th and continued through much of the morning of the 15th. Though the rainfall did not fall at a fast rate, it was steady over a long period of time. Rainfall rates were in the one to two tenth inch per hour range. Reports of one to two inches of rain were common, with spotty reports of anywhere from three to five inches. The ground was saturated from recent storms and snow melt. As a result much of the rain ran off. Creeks overflowed their banks and numerous roads were closed. Some of the worst flooding took place in Wapello County. At one point at least 21 roads and highways were closed in the county. The water receded slowly during the late afternoon and evening hours as rainfall rates decreased and the precipitation began to change to snow.

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 Mar 15, 2:49 AM CST, 6 hours 11 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Mar 15, 2:49 AM CST, 6 hours 11 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA
249 AM CST THU MAR 15 2001

FCST CHALLENGES INCLUDE WHEN WIDESPREAD PRECIP KICKS IN OVR SRN HALF
CWA...CHANGEOVER TO SNOW...AND AMOUNTS.

CERTAINLY A STRONG SYSTEM OVR PLAINS TO EFFECT SRN IA/NRM MO THIS
AFTERNOON INTO FRI MORNING.  ETA CONTINUES TO BE THE BEST WITH THE
SOUTHWARD TREND WITH THIS SYSTEM...THOUGH WOULD EXPECT THIS
SOUTHWARD TREND TO WANE...AND THE 06Z VS 00Z ETA DPROG/DT FOR 16/00Z
BEAR THIS OUT WITH LITTLE DIFFERENCES AT 50H OR SFC.  AT THE
SFC...COLD FRONT HAS PUSHED TO AT LEAST IA/MO BORDER WHILST WARM
FRONT OVR CEN MO SHOULD BE STALLING TOO.  VARIOUS LOWS IN KS/OK LOOK
TO BE CONSOLIDATING ATTM.  EXPECT AN EASTWARD MOVEMENT WITH THIS.

ALL IN ALL...CURRENT ZFP HAS THINGS WELL IN HAND - GOOD JOB DAY
SHIFT WED!

TODAY...EXPECT LITTLE PRECIP IN NORTH/NW CWA WITH DRY AIR
INFILTRATING THAT AREA.  FARTHER SOUTH...EXPECT PRECIP TO BREAK OUT
IN DEF ZONE AND A CHANGE OVER TO SNOW NW TO SE...REACHING DSM BY
18-20Z AND OTM IN 00Z-03Z TIME FRAME.  GREAT QG FORCING...QN
FORCING...OMEGA...AND SO FORTH AS LLJ IMPINGES UPON FRONTS TO S OF
CWA AND OVRRIDES THEM. RIVERS IN SE CWA ALREADY HIGH AND SEE GOOD
POTENTIAL FOR MAINSTEMS TO GET OUT...WITH HALF TO AN INCH OF RAIN
DOWN THERE...MAYBE MORE IF TSRA GET GOING.  SEE SOME POTENTIAL FOR
THAT TO CONTINUE INTO TONIGHT...BUT DON'T WANT TO OVERLAP SUCH
DIFFERENT HEADLINES ATTM.  FARTHER NORTHWEST...GOING ZFP AMOUNTS
LOOK REALLY GOOD.  LAYER RH'S SHOW DEFINATE N EDGE TO THE
CLOUDS/PRECIP.  WILL FOLLOW CURRENT ZFP LEAD AND NOT CHANGE TOO
MUCH. WINDS WILL COME UP AND BE QUITE STRONG TODAY WITH HIGH TO
NORTH AND LOW TO SOUTH.  SUPPOSE THERE IS SOME POTENTIAL FOR WND ADV
NORTH...BUT WILL HOLD OFF FOR NOW.  I'M RUNNING OUT OF KITCHEN SINKS!
NONETHELESS...COMBO OF RELATIVELY LIGHT SNOW AND WIND IN NW HALF OF
CURRENT WATCH POINTS TO WINT WX ADV POTENTIAL FOR THIS
AFTERNOON...WILL GO AHEAD AND HOIST THAT FLAG.  GIVEN WIND
POTENTIAL...I COULD ALMOST SEE A WARNING AT THIS POINT FOR THIS
AFTERNOON INTO TONIGHT...BUT WILL LET DAY SHIFT HAVE ONE MORE UPR
ANALYSIS AND MODEL RUN TO LOOK AT.  THERE'LL STILL BE PLENTY OF TIME
FOR A WARNING TO BE ISSUED BEFORE ANY BLIZZARD WARNING CRITERIA
WOULD BE REACHED MID AFTNOON...AND ON.

TONIGHT...STILL EXPECT PLENTY OF WATER IN SE CWA TO FALL BEFORE
CHANGEOVER...BUT WON'T COMPLICATE FCST.  GREAT LIFT LOOKING AT
VARIOUS PARAMETERS CONTINUES...AND EVEN MOVES BACK NORTH AS S/W
CURRENTLY IN WRN MT SLIDES INTO BACKSIDE OF OUR SYSTEM.  WILL BRING
SNOWS BACK TO NORTH A BIT THERE.  ALSO WILL CONTINUE WATCH INTO
TONIGHT AND FRIDAY MORNING AS LIFT CONTINUES IN DEF ZONE ACROSS
CURRENT WATCH AREA.  AMOUNTS COULD CERTAINLY BY IN THE 6-9 RANGE
FROM JUST SOUTH OF DSM TO OTM.  WINDS CONTINUE TO BE QUITE STRONG
WITH LARGE AGEO COMPONENT...FORM THE NORTH...SO WILL SEE ENUF COLD
AIR TO KEEP THIS THING GOING. SEE HSD/QPF DISC FOR MORE DETAILS.

FRIDAY...SNOW TO PERSIST IN MORNING IN WATCH AREA...AND EVEN LINGER
PERHAPS IN SE IN EVENING.

FRI NIGHT LOOKS QUITE WITH CLEARING/CLEAR SKIES.

TEMPS THROUGH PERIOD...GUID AND CURRENT ZFP CLOSE.  WON'T DEVIATE
MUCH AS THERE'S NOT A LOT TO BE MADE HERE.

THANKS TO DVN/EAX FOR COORD CALL.

.KDSM...WINTER WEATHER ADV THIS AFTERNOON FOR
        IAZ050-060>062-071>074-081>083-g092-093-
        WINTER STORM WATCH THIS EVENING THROUGH FRIDAY MORNING FOR
        IAZ050-060>062-071>075-081>086-092>097-
        FLOOD WATCH TODAY FOR
        IAZ075-084>086-094>097-

SEARCY

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Mar 15, 6:44 AM CST, 2 hours 16 minutes before

IAZ075-084>086-094>097-160000-

CENTRAL IOWA THUNDERSTORM OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA
644 AM CST THU MAR 15 2001

HAZARD--ISOLATED NON SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS.

AREA OF CONCERN--SOUTHEAST OF A LINE FROM LAMONI TO OKSALOOSA.

TIMING--THROUGH 6 PM.

METEROLOGICAL COMMENTS--A STRONG WINTER STORM SYSTEM OVER NEBRASKA
WILL MOVE INTO KANSAS TODAY...THEN EAST INTO MISSOURI TONIGHT.
ABUNDANT LOW LEVEL MOISTURE WILL MOVE NORTH...OVER A WARM FRONT THAT
IS DRAPED OVER NORTHERN MISSOURI...WHICH WILL PRODUCE WIDESPREAD
RAIN WILL OCCUR OVER THE OUTLOOK AREA TODAY.  A FEW THUNDERSTORMS
ARE NOT OUT OF THE QUESTION...THOUGH NO SEVERE WEATHER WILL OCCUR.
SOME HEAVY RAIN MAY OCCUR WHICH MAY LEAD TO SOME RISES ON RIVERS AND
STREAMS.

PRECAUTIONS--SPOTTERS WILL NOT BE NEEDED...THOUGH RAINFALL REPORTS
WILL BE APPRECIATED.

SEARCY

The radar

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

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

2 flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Flood, Monroe

When: March 15, 9:00 AM CST to 3:30 PM CST
Where: Monroe forecast zone
Property damage: $25,000
Reported by: LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates: 41.030, -92.869 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Flood, Wapello

When: March 15, 9:00 AM CST to 4:15 PM CST
Where: Wapello forecast zone
Property damage: $50,000
Reported by: LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates: 41.031, -92.409 (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

Every storm in Iowa in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Iowa, March 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: 5235419, 5235420.