The West Fork of the Des Moines River went into minor flood toward the end of March from snowmelt and the river remained in flood into early April.
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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.
The West Fork of the Des Moines River went into minor flood toward the end of March from snowmelt and the river remained in flood into early April.
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 27, 10:53 PM CST, 52 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Des Moines IA 1153 PM CDT Tue Mar 27 2018 .SHORT TERM.../Tonight through Wednesday/ Issued at 325 PM CDT Tue Mar 27 2018 Clouds have not cleared as fast as originally thought across the area, but most of the clouds across the northeast and central starting to become more cellular so should clear out with sunset. Further south clouds may linger into the evening. Potential still for fog is high especially over the snowpack region. High pressure continues to build into the state tonight with winds going light and variable tonight. Residual moisture from the rain yesterday and any snowmelt/snow north and with dewpoints around or above freezing should contribute toward the fog potential tonight especially in areas that are free of the low stratus. Have hit the snowpack area the hardest and gone with widespread fog, with areas to patchy fog elsewhere for late tonight into early Wednesday. Confidence not high enough in very low vsbys to issue a dense fog advisory at that time, thus will let the evening/overnight shifts monitor and issue as possibly needed. Otherwise southwesterly winds to pick up in advance of a cold front expected to drop through the area later Wednesday into Wednesday night. This should help scour out any fog/low clouds in the morning, but may still see some difficulty burning off the fog or at least low stratus in the snowpack region Wednesday with increasing moisture and waa through the lower levels. Therefore even with strong waa into the state and southwesterly flow have kept temps lower in the very heavy snowpack area. Otherwise across central and southwestern Iowa should see temps warm nicely into the upper 50s to around 60 ahead of the front. Front to move into the northwest by the mid to late afternoon hours and could see some light rain into that area through the afternoon. .LONG TERM.../Wednesday night through Tuesday/ Issued at 325 PM CDT Tue Mar 27 2018 Wednesday night onward Frontal boundary continues to progress southeastward across the state with moisture pooling along and ahead of the front. Continue to see rain chances across the forecast area with the frontal passage. May see a snowflake or two mix in on the backside, but majority of the precip should be along or ahead of the front so expect mainly rain across the central/south with temps falling behind the precip. Upper trough moving through the central US to the south of the state to merge with the boundary across southern IA toward the MO border and may allow precipitation to linger into Thursday morning across the far south. Some possibility this will push all the way into MO and remain mostly out of IA. Therefore kept only chance to slight chance pops across the far south. Otherwise high pressure to briefly build into the state with temperatures remaining cooler into Thursday night. Discrepancies still abound into Friday and Saturday with a system expected to impact the central US in westerly to northwesterly upper level flow. The GFS continue to remain the furthest south and most robust with this system bring the precip shield through northern Iowa Friday night, while the EC tracks it further north across MN. Both bring the strong cold front through Saturday morning with drier conditions into later Saturday. The GFS then tries to rebound quickly with return flow into Sunday and another quick wave and precip chances in the south. Trended pops down a bit for this as the large high pressure remaining in place for a bit in the EC solution seems more likely given the push of cold air expected Saturday into Sunday. Therefore have it dry and cooler into early next week with a chance for precip into Tuesday as a weak wave pushes through westerly to northwesterly flow aloft. Other than temperatures Wednesday, the entire period looks to have below normal temperatures and even significantly below normal temps into the weekend. && .AVIATION.../For the 06Z TAFS through 06Z Wednesday night/ Issued at 1153 PM CDT Tue Mar 27 2018 Fog has been a bit slower to develop than anticipated, but is now beginning to affect ALO/MCW and should gradually expand overnight. These two terminals and OTM should see the largest effects, with IFR or lower visibility likely mainly between about 09Z and 13Z. FOD and DSM should be less affected, or not at all. After about 14Z Wednesday expect VFR conditions. && .DMX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE. && SHORT TERM...Beerends LONG TERM...Beerends AVIATION...Lee
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service Des Moines IA 341 PM CDT Tue Mar 27 2018 IAZ004>007-015>017-023>028-033>039-044>050-057>062-070>075- 081>086-092>097-282045- 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- 341 PM CDT Tue Mar 27 2018 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for portions of central Iowa. .DAY ONE...This afternoon and tonight Widespread fog is likely tonight into Wednesday morning. Visibility in some locations may drop as low as a quarter mile at times, particularly over the melting snow pack in north central Iowa. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Wednesday through Monday No hazardous weather expected at this time. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.
The West Fork of the Des Moines River at Estherville crested at 10.22 feet on 29 March 2018 at 1800 UTC.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Iowa in 2018Every state in 2018This day in weather historyWarnings in Iowa, March 2018
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: 746821.