A weak cold front moved southeast across Iowa during the night of the 14th. The airmass was very unstable over Iowa, but also very capped.
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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 DMX wrote it up.
A weak cold front moved southeast across Iowa during the night of the 14th. The airmass was very unstable over Iowa, but also very capped. By the late afternoon, CAPE values were as high as 7700 J/kg over western Iowa as temperatures warmed in to the low to mid 90s and dew points approached 80, and the lifted index dropped to -13 C. The energy was not able to be realized for the most part because of the warm air aloft. The freezing level was 17,000 feet with a 700 mb temperature of +16 C. Thunderstorms developed over Minnesota, then back developed southwest into Iowa during the late evening hours. The strongest thunderstorms were near the Minnesota border. One of them produced a brief tornado east of Wallingsford in Emmet County. The tornado touched down briefly in a farm field about 5 miles east of town, causing little damage. A short time later, broadcast reporters filmed a brief tornado touchdown south of Britt in Hancock County. Once again, other than crop damage little damage occurred.
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 Jul 14, 1:45 PM CST, 6 hours 23 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA 245 PM CDT MON JUL 14 2003 MAIN FOCUS IN SHORT TERM IS TIMING DVLPMNT POTENTILA OF SVR WX IN IA AND LONGER TERM IS ANY CHANCES FOR PCPN. ATTM BEST POTENTIAL FOR DVLPMNT IS FAR NWRN IA AS SKIES CLEARED AND TEMPS AND DEW POINTS ROSE. CAP STRENGTH HAS RAPIDLY DECREASED. IN LAST THREE HOUR TIME FRAME. ORGANIZED PRESSURE RISE/FALL COUPLET IA/NE/SD. SHORT TERM MODEL RUC HAS TEENDS OF HOLDING DVLPMNT OFF TIL AFT 00Z/15 WITH EARLIER RUNS TIME FRAME 21Z-00Z/ LOOKING AT CURRENT LAPS DATA WOULD FAVOR SLIGHTLY SOONER TIMEING AS EARLY AS 22Z. CORF. VECTORS/MAGN FAVOR FAST MOVING STORMS WITH ALMST DIRECT SRLY TRACK. NOT EXPECTING SCATTERED ANUTEE OF STORMS AND SPPED TO CAUSE ANY PROBLEMS WITH RIVERS THO SLOW DOWN OF FALL LKLY. RST OF FCST FAIRLY STRAIGHT FORWARD WITH ONLY CONCERN TEMPS AND LWR GUIDANCE FIGURES HOW WARM NEXT SEVERAL DAYS. DRIER AIR FITS GOOD DIURNAL RANGE. IN EXTENDED WITH UPPER RIDGE WEST OF STATE AND MINOR S/W COMING DOWN THE FLO AND THRU STATE ANY DAY COULD HAVE CHANCE FOR RAIN HWVR WILL LEAVE PCPN IN FRI NGT WITH REST OF FCST DRY. TEMPS SEASONABLE 80S/60S. .DSM...NONE FORSTER
IAZ004>007-015>017-023>028-033>039-044>050-057>062-070>075-081>086- 092>097-151200- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA 336 AM CDT MON JUL 14 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR CENTRAL IOWA. .DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. THERE IS A MODERATE RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS FOR PARTS OF CENTRAL IOWA TONIGHT. THE RISK IS ROUGHLY WEST OF AN ALGONA TO LAMONI LINE. THUNDERSTORMS SHOULD DEVELOP IN THE FAR NORTHWEST SECTIONS OF IOWA BY EARLY THIS EVENING AND MOVE SOUTH-SOUTHEAST ACROSS WESTERN IOWA THROUGH THE EVENING BEFORE ENDING AROUND MIDNIGHT. THE MAIN THREATS WILL BE SUPERCELL THUNDERSTORMS WITH LARGE HAIL...DAMAGING WINDS AND ISOLATED TORNADOES THIS AFTERNOON. DURING THE EVENING...DAMAGING WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO BE THE MAIN THREAT WITH LARGE HAIL BEING A SECONDARY THREAT. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY. THERE IS A CHANCE FOR THUNDERSTORMS AGAIN THURSDAY...MAINLY OVER NORTHERN IOWA. IT IS TOO EARLY TO ASSESS THE POTENTIAL FOR SEVERE WEATHER. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS LIKELY TONIGHT WEST OF A LINE FROM LAMONI TO DES MOINES TO ALGONA. && MORE INFORMATION CAN BE OBTAINED AT WWW.CRH.NOAA.GOV/DMX (ALL LOWER CASE). MS JUL 03
The Sioux Falls radar (KFSD), 164 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 02:06 UTC.
2 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
Brief touchdown in a field east of Wallingford.
Brief touchdown sited by TV reporters in an open farm field.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Iowa in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Iowa, 2003Warnings in Iowa, July 2003
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: 5367182, 5367183.