River levels remained high across much of the state through the latter half of April, so additional rainfall sent a few stations back into flood. The West Fork of the Des Moines River at Humboldt remained in flood through the end of April and into May.
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.
River levels remained high across much of the state through the latter half of April, so additional rainfall sent a few stations back into flood. The West Fork of the Des Moines River at Humboldt remained in flood through the end of April and into May. Flood periods earlier in the month are listed in separate episodes for both the Emmetsburg and Humboldt areas.
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 Apr 23, 2:19 PM CST, 1 hour 41 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Des Moines IA 319 PM CDT Tue Apr 23 2019 .DISCUSSION.../Tonight through Tuesday/ Issued at 319 PM CDT Tue Apr 23 2019 The rest of the work week will be generally dry and quiet. Currently a surface high pressure ridge is slowly sinking down from southern Minnesota into northern Iowa, with modest northeast breezes this afternoon expected to become light and variable after sunset, then turn to generally east then south overnight as the ridge moves by. Meanwhile at 500 mb a weak trough is moving slowly over the region just south of us, producing an expansive cloud field over Kansas and Missouri with a narrow strip of very light rain up across northern Missouri. Some short-term models bring this precipitation over our southern and southeastern counties overnight into Wednesday morning, however, most of these have been overdone with the rain all today, relative to observations, and believe this trend will continue given the dry air impinging on its northward extent in association with the surface ridge. Thus have only included the barest strip of 20-30 POPs in our far southeast corner late tonight, with no QPF included. From late Wednesday through Friday the 500 mb flow overhead will turn to more west northwest, with a couple of shortwave impulses moving through, keeping temperatures from warming and bringing a couple more chances for spotty, very light rain. The first of these will come with the accompanying passage of a modest surface cool front Wednesday night into Thursday morning, and the second will come during the day on Friday. In both cases only low POPs are forecast and any impact from rain that does occur will be minimal, with perhaps several hundredths of an inch of rain affecting a few areas and no thunder expected. This weekend into early next week we will see a considerably more active weather pattern, however model solutions diverge rapidly and confidence in forecast details degrades accordingly. The trouble begins during the day on Friday as a relatively compact but energetic shortwave trough moves quickly over the northern Rockies, through the west northwesterly 500 mb steering flow. As this feature approaches the Midwest on Friday night and moves over Iowa on Saturday, the GFS is consistently much stronger as it digs the trough while the ECMWF and GEM are much shallower with the trough and keep the bulk of the associated vorticity confined just to our north over Minnesota. All solutions thus highlight Friday night into Saturday as a period of heightened precipitation chances with the trough moving by, but the extent, duration, and intensity of rainfall vary considerably. Have thus raised POPs further, into the 60-80 range across northern Iowa, from late Friday night through Saturday morning, but the precipitation appears to be straight rain/showers with temperatures too warm for snow, and instability too low for thunder. The previously discussed discrepancies in solutions for the initial trough have compounding effects for variability in solutions of subsequent shortwaves within the west northwest flow into early next week, resulting in an extended period of forecast uncertainty where rain is anticipated at times, but the timing, areal extent, and intensity of the rain are very uncertain at this time. However, it does appear within this synoptic pattern that instability will remain limited, mitigating thunderstorm chances and keeping the severe weather threat low for now. && .AVIATION.../For the 18Z TAFS through 18Z Wednesday afternoon/ Issued at 1243 PM CDT Tue Apr 23 2019 Widespread VFR conditions are expected for the duration of the forecast with unrestricted ceilings in northern Iowa and cirrus across southern Iowa. Visibilities will be unrestricted with winds becoming light and variable tonight with surface ridge overhead. Winds will become south to southwest by midday Wednesday. && .DMX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE. && DISCUSSION...Lee AVIATION...Cogil
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service Des Moines IA 400 AM CDT Tue Apr 23 2019 IAZ005>007-016-017-023-025>028-033>039-044>050-057>062-070>075- 081>086-092>097-240900- Kossuth-Winnebago-Worth-Hancock-Cerro Gordo-Pocahontas-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- 400 AM CDT Tue Apr 23 2019 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for portions of central Iowa. .DAY ONE...Today and tonight No hazardous weather is expected at this time. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Wednesday through Monday Thunderstorms are possible late Friday night, Saturday and Sunday over portions of the region. At this time, there is no severe weather anticipated. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotter activation is not needed at this time. IAZ004-015-024-240900- Emmet-Palo Alto-Humboldt- 400 AM CDT Tue Apr 23 2019 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for portions of central Iowa. .DAY ONE...Today and tonight River Flood Warnings will continue into at least early next week for parts of the upper Des Moines River Basin. Please refer to the National Weather Service website at weather.gov/desmoines for further details. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Wednesday through Monday Thunderstorms are possible late Friday night, Saturday and Sunday over portions of the region. At this time, there is no severe weather anticipated. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotter activation is not needed at this time. REV
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
2 flood. Local standard time, as filed.
The West Fork of the Des Moines River at Emmetsburg crested at 11.06 feet on 24 April 2019 at 05:00 UTC.
The West Fork of the Des Moines River at Humboldt crested at 10.31 feet on 29 April 2019 at 22:30 UTC.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Iowa in 2019Every state in 2019This day in weather historyWarnings in Iowa, April 2019
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: 811850, 811849.