S. During the previous night, a strong short wave lifted northeast across the area, setting off a round of thunderstorms.
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
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 very active pattern was in place over the central U.S. During the previous night, a strong short wave lifted northeast across the area, setting off a round of thunderstorms. The thunderstorms moved northeast of the area by afternoon with a large area of subsidence moving into Iowa. This allowed the atmosphere to recover during the afternoon. An upper level closed low pressure area was positioned over western and central Nebraska during the afternoon and evening hours. The low lifted northeast as a surface dry line extending south from the low advanced east across Kansas. The airmass was quite unstable with lifted indices around -8 C. by late afternoon and mixed layer CAPE values in the 3000 to 4000 J/kg range. The freezing level at the beginning of the event was around 14,000 feet. Thunderstorms became tornadic to the southwest of Iowa during the late afternoon. One of the storms produced a tornado in northern Missouri which crossed into Ringgold County. The tornado passed through farm fields for about a mile before lifting. Little damage resulted. The storms moved in to south central Iowa and produced some very large hail. Softball size hail fell during the early stages of the event in Ringgold County, with baseball size hail in Decatur County. As the system moved northeast, hail sizes decreased and the event turned into more of a wind event. There were several reports of 55 to 65 MPH winds received as the line lifted northeast. Some damage occurred, however the damage was not widespread.
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 4, 2:41 PM CST, 3 hours 34 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA 341 PM CDT SAT JUN 4 2005 .SHORT TERM...TNGT THRU MON NGT PRIMARY CONCERN WL BE NR TERM SVR AND HYDRO THREAT. CURRENT SCENARIO HAS SPEED MAX EJECTING INTO MO VLY INCRG DEEP SHEAR. SHRT WV FM MRNG CONVECTION EXITING NERN IA LEAVING BHND BRIEF PD OF DVM...WHILE NEXT WV APCHG INVOF CO/NE/KS BORDER. THIS QG FORCING AXIS EXTENDS FM WV INTO SERN KS AND HAS HELPED INITIATE TSTMS NR TOP. FEEL THIS UVM WL AID TSTM DVLPMT INVOF MSTR CNVGNC AXIS WHICH 20Z OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE SFC ANLYS PLACES ACRS ERN KS AND NRN MO/ERN IA TO A LESSER EXTENT. 20Z MLCAPES SHOW VERY UNSTABLE AND UNCAPPED AMS OVR KS/MO...APCHG 4000 J/KG. BUNKERS STORM MOTION BRINGS TOP TSTMS INTO SRN IA AND CURRENT TOR WATCH ARND 23Z. COULD BE ISOLD TORNADOES BUT WITH LOW LVL BNDRY LACKING MAIN THREAT MAY BE HAIL AND WIND. SUPERCELL PARAMETERS CERTAINLY PEGGED. THESE STORMS HAVE DVLPD ON THE NOSE OF THE LLJ WHICH FOCUSES INTO SERN IA OVNGT. WRM CLD DEPTH AND PWS ARND 1.50 SHOULD BE IN PLACE FOR EFFICIENT RAINERS WHERE 1.50-2.00 FELL LAST NGT AND ALSO BLENDS INTO OAX/EAX WATCH. COULD SEE SOME TRAINING WITH CORFIDI VECTORS SHOWING MOTION PARALLEL TO BNDRY SO WL ISSUE FLASH FLOOD WATCH IN THESE AREAS. CONVECTION SHOULD EXIT ERN PTNS OVNGT WITH MORE SCT DVLPMT POSSIBLE TMRW AS UPR LOW MOVES ACRS. NO SGFNT BNDRY BUT VARIOUS INSTABILITY INDICES POINT TWRD MORE DVLPMT DRNG PEAK HEATING. ALTHOUGH LOW CHCS WL LINGER SUN EVE ERN PTNS...WE SHOULD THEN SEE A BREAK INTO BEGINNING OF WORK WEEK AS RDG BUILDS INTO MO VLY. NAM FCST SOUNDINGS SUGGEST SUN MAX TEMPS NR WARMEST OF TWO MOS GUIDANCES AND MIXED TO AOA 800MB AND WL STAY IN THIS BALL PARK FOR MAXES TMRW. MON LOOKS QUITE WRM TOO WITH BOTH GFS/NAM POINTING TWRD MIXING TO 750MB. THIS SUGGESTS AT OR JUST ABV WRM END OF GUIDANCE. STAYED TWRD COMPROMISE FOR MINS. .LONG TERM...TUE THRU SAT MAIN FOCUS IN THIS PD WL BE EVOLUTION OF APCHG CDFNT. MDLS ARE HAVING THEIR DIFFERENCES WITH REGARD TO HOW MUCH UPR LVL ENERGY TO BRING INTO THE HIGH PLAINS...AND THIS RESULTS IN QUESTIONS WITH ASSOCD BNDRY AS WELL. ALTHOUGH MDLS DO AGREE THAT BNDRY WL BE SOMEWHERE NR IA...PSN AND DETAILS CRITICAL TO FCST STILL TOUGH TO PIN DOWN. 00Z MDL CONSENSUS SUGGESTS SLGTLY BETTER CHCS INVOF MN BORDER...AND TUE THRU WED NGT INVOF FNT. GFS POINTING N WHILE NAM/ECMWF LOOK CLOSER TO HOME. NRN PTNS INVOF FNT MAY END UP SEEING ANOTHER ROUND OF SVR WX WHERE SVRL SUPERCELL AND TORNADO PARAMETERS ARE EMPHASIZING THINGS. LLJ FOCUSING ON SAME AREA TOO WITH HVY RAINS POSSIBLE. SVR THREAT MAY DMSH SOMEWHAT...BUT THIS PTN LOOKS TO HOLD THRU MUCH OF THE WEAK WITH ILL-DEFINED FNT WANDERING ACRS IA. CHCS TAPER OFF BY END OF WEEK AS RDG BUILDS INTO IA AND PTN AMPLIFIES SO HAVE LEFT SAT DRY FOR TIME BEING. PD LOOKS TO START FAIRLY WRM WITH FA IN WRM SECTOR...BUT LOWERED HIGHS A DEGREE OR TWO EARLY BASED ON CONSENSUS H85 TEMPS AND PROJECTED MIXING...STILL ABV NML. FNTL PSN SOMEWHAT QUESTIONABLE IN LATER PDS SO LEANED CLOSER TO CLIMO. && .DMX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...FLASH FLOOD WATCH SRN ONE TO TWO TIERS OF COUNTIES 23Z-11Z. && SMALL
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA 252 PM CDT SAT JUN 4 2005 IAZ081>086-092>097-052000- ADAMS-UNION-CLARKE-LUCAS-MONROE-WAPELLO-TAYLOR-RINGGOLD-DECATUR- WAYNE-APPANOOSE-DAVIS- 252 PM CDT SAT JUN 4 2005 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTH CENTRAL IOWA ALONG AND SOUTH OF HIGHWAY 34. .DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT THERE IS A MODERATE RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS AFTER 4 PM THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH MIDNIGHT. SUPERCELL THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE WITH ISOLATED TORNADOES. HAIL UP TO TWO INCHES IN DIAMETER AND 75 MPH WIND GUSTS WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE. IF A LINE OF STORMS DEVELOPS...THEY MAY REPEATEDLY MOVE ACROSS THE SAME AREA LATE THIS EVENING AND EARLY SUNDAY MORNING AND PRODUCE A THREAT FOR ISOLATED FLASH FLOODING. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY AN ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS IS POSSIBLE ON SUNDAY...HOWEVER NO SEVERE WEATHER IS EXPECTED. ADDITIONAL THREATS FOR THUNDERSTORMS EXISTS FROM LATE TUESDAY THROUGH THE REMAINDER OF THE OUTLOOK PERIOD. THERE IS THE POTENTIAL FOR THESE STORMS TO BECOME SEVERE. MORE DETAILS WILL BECOME AVAILABLE AS THE EVENTS NEAR. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL BE LIKELY BY EARLY THIS EVENING. SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY ALSO BE NEEDED AT VARIOUS TIMES FROM TUESDAY NIGHT THROUGH NEXT FRIDAY. IAZ004>007-015>017-023>028-033>039-044>050-057>062-070>075-052000- EMMET-KOSSUTH-WINNEBAGO-WORTH-PALO ALTO-HANCOCK-CERRO GORDO- POCAHONTAS-HUMBOLDT-WRIGHT-FRANKLIN-BUTLER-BREMER-SAC-CALHOUN- WEBSTER-HAMILTON-HARDIN-GRUNDY-BLACK HAWK-CRAWFORD-CARROLL-GREENE- BOONE-STORY-MARSHALL-TAMA-AUDUBON-GUTHRIE-DALLAS-POLK-JASPER- POWESHIEK-CASS-ADAIR-MADISON-WARREN-MARION-MAHASKA- 252 PM CDT SAT JUN 4 2005 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF CENTRAL AND NORTHERN IOWA ALONG AND NORTH OF INTERSTATE 80. .DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT THERE IS A SLIGHT TO MODERATE RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS THIS EVENING AND OVERNIGHT...MAINLY FROM 7 PM THROUGH 3 AM. ALTHOUGH AN ISOLATED TORNADO CANNOT BE RULED OUT...THE MAIN THREAT FROM THE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE QUARTER TO GOLF BALL SIZE HAIL AND 65 MPH WIND GUSTS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY AN ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS IS POSSIBLE ON SUNDAY...HOWEVER NO SEVERE WEATHER IS EXPECTED. ADDITIONAL THREATS FOR THUNDERSTORMS EXISTS FROM LATE TUESDAY THROUGH THE REMAINDER OF THE OUTLOOK PERIOD. THERE IS THE POTENTIAL FOR THESE STORMS TO BECOME SEVERE. MORE DETAILS WILL BECOME AVAILABLE AS THE EVENTS NEAR. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVIATION WILL BE POSSIBLE THIS EVENING THROUGH 3 AM. SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY ALSO BE NEEDED AT VARIOUS TIMES FROM TUESDAY NIGHT THROUGH NEXT FRIDAY.
The Des Moines radar (KDMX), 128 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 00:16 UTC.
22 thunderstorm wind, 10 hail, 1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
Tornado crossed into Iowa from Harrision County, MO and passed across a few farm fields before lifting.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Iowa in 2005Every state in 2005This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Iowa, 2005Warnings in Iowa, June 2005
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: 5453228, 5453108, 5453109, 5453110, 5453111, 5453131, 5453112, 5453113, 5453114, 5453115, 5453132, 5453116, 5453117, 5453118, 5453119, 5453120, 5453121, 5453122, 5453133, 5453123, 5453124, 5453125, 5453134, 5453126, 5453226, 5453127, 5453227, 5453128, 5453223, 5453225, 5453224, 5453129, 5453130.