Flooding continued to be a problem through the middle of the month. Snowmelt and additional rainfall resulted in flooding along many of the rivers in north central through northeast Iowa.
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.
Flooding continued to be a problem through the middle of the month. Snowmelt and additional rainfall resulted in flooding along many of the rivers in north central through northeast Iowa.
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 12, 5:32 PM CST, 2 hours 43 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA 632 PM CDT WED MAR 12 2008 ...UPDATED AVIATION DISCUSSION... .SHORT TERM...TONIGHT THROUGH SAT AN UPPER LEVEL TROUGH OF LOW PRESSURE WILL PUSH EAST ACROSS THE STATE TONIGHT. THE ASSOCIATED SURFACE LOW ALONG THE U.S./CANADIAN BORDER WILL MOVE EAST ACCORDINGLY. THE FRONT ASSOCIATED WITH THE SURFACE LOW IS ALREADY IN WESTERN IA AT 18Z AND WILL MOVE ACROSS THE CWA WITH LITTLE FANFARE OTHER THAN AN INCREASE IN CLOUD COVER. ANY PRECIP WITH THIS SYSTEM IS POST FRONTAL AND SEEMS TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH A WEAK LITTLE VORT MAX IN THE VICINITY OF KFSD AT 18Z BASED ON WATER VAPOR IMAGERY. RADAR SHOWING PRECIP BREAKING OUT ON THE NORTHERN EDGE OF THE VORT CENTER...AS ONE WOULD EXPECT. PRECIP IS LIGHT AND BASED ON THE CURRENT TRACK WILL PROBABLY ONLY AFFECT THE NORTHERN TIER OR TWO OF COUNTIES LATE AFTERNOON THROUGH MID EVENING. KEEPING CURRENT POPS GOING AND MOVING THE SLGT CHC INTO THE EVENING HOURS. AS FOR TEMPS...CLOUDS SHOULD HOLD TEMPS UP A BIT AND WITH WESTERLY VS. NORTHWESTERLY FLOW BEHIND THIS SYSTEM DECIDED TO NUDGE OVERNIGHT LOWS UP A COUPLE DEGREES. LOOKING AHEAD TO NEXT WAVE CURRENTLY APPROACHING FOUR CORNERS REGION...FORCING WITH THIS SYSTEM STILL APPEARS TO REMAIN JUST TO OUR SOUTH IN MOST OF NOT ALL MODELS SO WILL KEEP THIS PERIOD DRY. GFS/ECMWF SOLUTIONS WILL BE FAVORED FOR FOLLOWING WEEKEND SYSTEM. NAM SEEMS LIKE A NRN/STRONGER OUTLIER VS SREF...GEFS AND GEM AS WELL. THIS SCENARIO SUPPORTS LOW CHANCES FOR LIGHT RAIN THEN LIGHT SNOW BRUSHING SOUTHERN SECTIONS INTO SAT MORNING. SATURATION AND FORCING ARE BOTH PATCHY SO DO NOT EXPECT MUCH. BASED ON SOUNDINGS AND 24HR COLUMN TEMP CHANGES...EXPECT THU HIGHS TO TURN OUT SIMILAR TO TODAY. CANNOT FIND MUCH REASON TO DEVIATE FROM MOS BLEND BASED ON SOUNDINGS AND LOW LEVEL TEMPS. .LONG TERM...SAT THROUGH WED MAIN FOCUS OF THIS PERIOD REMAINS EVALUATION OF CURRENT GULF AK LOW WHICH WILL EVENTUALLY BE EJECTING WRN CONUS TROUGH EARLY NEXT WEEK. GENERALLY FAVORED BLEND OF GFS/GEM IN THIS PERIOD WHICH IS THE FASTER END OF THINGS BASED ON RUN TO RUN TRENDS AND EXAMINATION OF INDIVIDUAL ENSEMBLE MEMBERS. RECENT GFS RUNS ARE HINTING EVEN FASTER SOLUTIONS SO THIS MAY BE THE APPROPRIATE TREND. PASSAGE WILL LIKELY BE MATURE CYCLONE WITH DEF ZN...DRY SLOT AND CONVECTION ALONG COLD FRONT TO THE SOUTH. CURRENT SCENARIO WOULD SUGGEST DEF ZN NWRN HALF SO HAVE RAISED POPS THERE A TAD BUT LEFT IN LOWER CHANCE CATEGORY ELSEWHERE. STILL A LOT OF QUESTIONS HOWEVER WITH TRACK YET TO BE DETERMINED AND PCPN TYPE PROBLEMATIC. POSSIBILITIES RANGE FROM RELATIVELY WEAK MIXED PCPN EVENT TO WARNING EVENT AND WIND BLOWN SNOWS IN POTENT DEF ZN. GFS SEEMS TOO PHASED...WHICH IS OFTEN A BIAS...BUT 12Z ECMWF SEEMS TO BE HEADING INTO SOMEWHAT OF A COMPROMISE BETWEEN THE TWO. CONFIDENCE IN EXTREME DIRECTION NOT GREAT ENOUGH TO MENTION IN HWO QUITE YET...BUT THIS WILL NEED TO BE WATCHED IN THE COMING DAYS. LOWERED TEMPS A TAD MON CLOSER TO ENS MOS AVG BASED ON RAW GFS TEMPS. RAW MODEL TEMPS ALSO SUGGEST GETTING CLOSER TO MEAN ENS MOS TUE AS WELL. && .AVIATION...13/00Z LOW PRESSURE CURRENTLY MOVING ACROSS NORTHERN IOWA WITH FRONTAL BOUNDARY EXTENDING SOUTH THROUGH CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN IOWA. MVFR CEILINGS AND A FEW SPRINKLES MOVING OVER THE FAR NORTH AND AFFECTING MCW AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO FOR THE NEXT FEW HOURS. DRIER LOW LEVEL AIR IS MOVING IN BEHIND THE BOUNDARY AND WILL PUSH THE LOW CEILINGS OUT OF THE AREA THIS EVENING. WINDS WILL BECOME WESTERLY IN THE WAKE OF THE FROPA AND REMAIN THROUGH THE TAF PERIOD WITH VFR CONDITIONS PREVAILING. && .DMX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE. && LONG TERM/SHORT TERM...BSS/FAB AVIATION...DONAVON
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA 537 AM CDT WED MAR 12 2008 IAZ004>007-015>017-023>028-033>039-044>050-057>062-070>075- 081>086-092>097-131100- 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-ADAMS-UNION- CLARKE-LUCAS-MONROE-WAPELLO-TAYLOR-RINGGOLD-DECATUR-WAYNE- APPANOOSE-DAVIS- 537 AM CDT WED MAR 12 2008 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF CENTRAL IOWA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT SOME RIVERS IN CENTRAL IOWA REMAIN ICE COVERED AND WITH A WARM UP EXPECTED TO LAST INTO FRIDAY...THERE WILL BE CONTINUED SNOW MELT AND THE POTENTIAL FOR ICE JAM FLOODING. FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PLEASE REFER TO THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WEBSITE AT WEATHER.GOV/DESMOINES. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY THE THREAT OF FLOODING WILL CONTINUE INTO THE WEEKEND AS WARMER TEMPERATURES RESULT IN RAPID SNOW MELT ACROSS NORTHERN IOWA THERE IS STILL SOME POTENTIAL FOR ICE JAM FLOODING AS WELL. FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PLEASE REFER TO THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WEBSITE AT WEATHER.GOV/DESMOINES. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED...HOWEVER ANY REPORTS OF ICE JAMMING OR FLOODING WOULD BE APPRECIATED.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
8 flood. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Iowa in 2008Every state in 2008This day in weather historyWarnings in Iowa, March 2008
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: 86496, 86497, 86491, 86493, 86495, 86492, 86494, 86498.