A slow moving occluded front running from Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin to Springfield, Illinois provided the focus for thunderstorms to develop in a semi-moist atmosphere. A few pulse severe storms occurred in the metropolitan area which produced mainly hail.
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.
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 DVN wrote it up.
A slow moving occluded front running from Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin to Springfield, Illinois provided the focus for thunderstorms to develop in a semi-moist atmosphere. A few pulse severe storms occurred in the metropolitan area which produced mainly hail. Although the storms were fast movers, training of storms occurred along the front that resulted in rainfall rates of up to 2 inches in one hour or less. This training resulted in streets flooding with standing water of up to 8 inches deep. The city of Milan bore the brunt of the training storms with many downtown streets filled with water. Fourth Street passing under I-280 saw the worst flooding with standing water estimated at 1-2 feet deep.
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 Apr 30, 1:05 AM CST, 14 hours 21 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL 205 AM CDT SUN APR 30 2006 .DISCUSSION... LARGE ELONGATED UPPER LOW OVER THE PLAINS IN THE PROCESS OF DEEPENING AND CONSOLIDATING /BECOMING VERTICALLY STACKED/ TO OUR WEST OVER WESTERN IA NEXT 12 HRS. LATEST MSAS SFC ANALYSIS SHOWS NICE PRES RISE/FALL COUPLET WITH SFC LOW IN WESTERN MO WITH GREATEST FALLS OVER FAR NORTHERN MO AND SOUTH CENTRAL IA ATTIM INDICATING MODELS ON TARGET WITH NORTHWARD MOVEMENT. ENERGY IN PACIFIC NORTHWEST EARLY THIS MORNING WILL SHIFT ACROSS THE NORTHERN ROCKIES ON MON AND AID IN PULLING THE LOW NORTHWARD INTO SOUTHERN CANADA BY 12Z TUE. WV IMAGERY SHOWS PRONOUNCED SHORTWAVE AND MID LEVEL DRY PUNCH LIFTING QUICKLY UP INTO THE CWA WITH RADAR SHOWING COVERAGE OF RAIN DIMINISHING SOMEWHAT... TRANSITIONING TO NORTH/SOUTH BAND WITHIN ZONE OF LOW-MID LEVEL WARM ADVECTION ON NOSE OF 50 KT SOUTHERLY LLJ. OVERALL... PCPN NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS LIKELY TO NOT BE AS PERSISTENT OR WIDESPREAD LIKE WHAT WE/VE SEEN PAST 18-24 HRS. TODAY AND TONIGHT WITH OCCLUSION TO OUR WEST AND MUCH OF AREA ON COOL SIDE... AND CONTINUED MOISTURE ADVECTION... REDEVELOPMENT OF PCPN LIKELY AT ALMOST ANY TIME. PCPN CHARACTER CHANGING FROM STRATIFORM TO SHOWERY AS STEEPER MID LEVEL LAPSE RATES ADVECT IN WITH UPPER LOW PULLING NORTH. POTENTIAL FOR THUNDER AS WELL ESP SOUTHEAST IA...WEST CENTRAL IL AND NORTHEAST MO WITH H5 COLD POCKET (-20C) AND RESULTANT STEEPENING OF MID LEVEL LAPSE RATES. SPC HAS SOUTHEAST CWA IN SLIGHT RISK FOR SEVERE THIS AFTN/EVE. PROBLEMS WITH SEVERE POTENTIAL ATTIM IS 1) LACK OF DRYING AND SUFFICIENT INSTABILITY WITH SOUNDINGS SHOWING FAIRLY SATURATED COLUMN AND NO SUBSTANTIAL BREAKS IN CLOUDS APPARENT TO OUR SOUTH/WEST... 2) LOCATION OF JET WELL TO OUR SOUTH ACROSS SOUTHERN PORTIONS OF MO AND IL. SEVERE WX REPORTS YESTERDAY /SAT/ PLOT ALONG AND SOUTH OF JET AXIS AS ONE WOULD EXPECT. CONTINUED TREND OF LIMITED DIURNAL SWINGS NEXT FEW DAYS DUE TO CLOUDS AND PCPN... FAVORING COOL SIDE OF GUIDANCE FOR MAXES AND WARM SIDE FOR MINS. NO CHANGES MADE BEYOND MON. && .DVN WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... IA...NONE. IL...NONE. MO...NONE. && 05
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL 559 AM CDT SUN APR 30 2006 IAZ040>042-051>054-063>068-076>078-087>089-098-099-ILZ001-002-007- 009-015>018-024>026-034-035-MOZ009-010-011100- BUCHANAN-DELAWARE-DUBUQUE-BENTON-LINN-JONES-JACKSON-IOWA-JOHNSON- CEDAR-CLINTON-MUSCATINE-SCOTT-KEOKUK-WASHINGTON-LOUISA-JEFFERSON- HENRY IA-DES MOINES-VAN BUREN-LEE-JO DAVIESS-STEPHENSON-CARROLL- WHITESIDE-ROCK ISLAND-HENRY IL-BUREAU-PUTNAM-MERCER-HENDERSON- WARREN-HANCOCK-MCDONOUGH-SCOTLAND-CLARK- 559 AM CDT SUN APR 30 2006 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF NORTH CENTRAL ILLINOIS...NORTHWEST ILLINOIS...WEST CENTRAL ILLINOIS...EAST CENTRAL IOWA...NORTHEAST IOWA...SOUTHEAST IOWA AND NORTHEAST MISSOURI. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT LOW PRESSURE OVER NORTHWEST MISSOURI WILL SLOWLY LIFT NORTH THROUGH WESTERN IOWA TODAY AND THIS EVENING...REACHING SOUTHERN MINNESOTA MONDAY MORNING. PERIODS OF SHOWERS WITH LIGHT TO MODERATE RAIN WILL PERSIST INTO MONDAY AS ABUNDANT MOISTURE CONTINUES TO GET PULLED UP AHEAD OF THIS LOW. ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING...MAINLY EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. HOWEVER...IT APPEARS THAT INSTABILITY WILL BE LIMITED DUE TO CLOUDS AND ABUNDANT MOISTURE...THUS ANY ISOLATED STORMS THAT DO DEVELOP ARE EXPECTED TO REMAIN BELOW SEVERE LEVELS. BREEZY TO WINDY CONDITIONS WILL ALSO PERSIST TODAY. SOUTHEAST...TO SOUTH WINDS WILL LIKELY BE STRONGEST THIS MORNING...SUSTAINED BETWEEN 20 AND 25 MPH IN MANY AREAS...AND GUSTING BETWEEN 35 TO 40 MPH AT TIMES. THIS MAY CAUSE PROBLEMS FOR DRIVERS OF HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES...ESPECIALLY ON EAST...WEST ROADWAYS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY OCCASIONAL SHOWERS AND POSSIBLY A FEW THUNDERSTORMS WILL LINGER MONDAY AND MONDAY NIGHT. NO SEVERE WEATHER IS EXPECTED WITH THE STORMS. BY TUESDAY MORNING...STORM TOTAL RAINFALL AMOUNTS WILL AVERAGE AROUND 1 INCH IN MOST LOCATIONS...WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS TO NEAR 2 INCHES POSSIBLE. BECAUSE THIS RAIN WILL HAVE FALLEN OVER A PROLONGED PERIOD NO FLASH FLOODING OR RIVER FLOODING IS EXPECTED. ANOTHER STORM SYSTEM WILL BRING A CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON AND NIGHT. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED TODAY OR TONIGHT. 05
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL
426 PM CDT SUN APR 30 2006
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0424 PM HAIL 4 S ROCK ISLAND 41.42N 90.59W
04/30/2006 E0.50 INCH ROCK ISLAND IL TRAINED SPOTTER
&&
MIKEZThe Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 20 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:24 UTC.
4 hail, 4 heavy rain. Local standard time, as filed.
Nickel to quarter sized hail. Location is in the southwest part of the city of Rock Island northwest of Oak Grove and near Highland Springs Golf Course.
Nickel sized hail
2 inches of rain in the past 20 minutes.
Pea to nickel sized hail with heavy rain.
dime size hail
1.75 inches of rain in the past 30 minutes; 6-8 inches of water running along the curbs.
Street flooding; 1.97 inches of rain between 1500 and 1600 CST.
Ditches starting to fill up from the heavy rain.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Illinois in 2006Every state in 2006This day in weather historyWarnings in Illinois, April 2006
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: 5503046, 5503048, 5503049, 5503050, 5503052, 5502965, 5503047, 5503051.