Continued below normal precipitation allowed severe drought conditions to persist in portions of northwest and west central Iowa.
Every event with a place to put it; 8 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 DMX wrote it up.
Continued below normal precipitation allowed severe drought conditions to persist in portions of northwest and west central 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 Feb 28, 11:42 PM CST, 18 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Des Moines IA 1142 PM CST Tue Feb 28 2023 ...Updated for the 06z Aviation Discussion... .DISCUSSION.../Tonight through Tuesday/ Issued at 246 PM CST Tue Feb 28 2023 Key Messages: -- Light precipitation into tonight; mainly northern half of Iowa -- Areas of fog possible tonight -- Increasing winds, wintry precipitation spreads into portions of southern of Iowa later Thursday into Friday Details: GOES upper level water vapor imagery shows a trough dropping along the Pacific Northwest coast with west-southwesterly flow into the central part of the country. Ahead of this trough, a shortwave trough will eject from the Intermountain West into the Dakotas tonight while at the same time surface high pressure departs the state to the east. Surface winds have started to respond with mainly easterly winds, but winds at 925mb and 850mb have started to turn to the southeast and will later turn to the south. Warm air advection has already started ahead of the approaching shortwave, but the moisture return flow vector and time period before the system arrives is short such that moisture continues to look quite marginal. Forecast soundings today compared to yesterday continue to show the mid-level saturation, which is apparent on visible satellite, with saturation occurring top down into the low levels. The period of phased mid and low level saturation is very short lived and less than yesterday at this time. Already, light showers with even perhaps a brief bout of sleet via recent mPING from around Omaha is lifting out of southwest Iowa this afternoon. Thus, a few to several hour window of light rain or snow at a given location remains in the forecast over central and later northern Iowa into this evening. What still remains uncertain is as dry air works into the mid-levels and ice introduction is lost on the backside of the main light precipitation shield, how long and how much moisture remains in the lowest 1km to support any drizzle or freezing drizzle. While the 12z GFS dries out the column, the morning runs of the HRRR, RAP, and NAM all show a 3 to 6 hour period of close to 1km of saturation. More recent runs of the HRRR and RAP continue to show marginal if not less saturation depth leading to the decision to forgo any mention outside of here and briefly in the weather story. Will need to monitor radar and sounding trends into tonight. While moisture depth may not be as great elsewhere in the forecast area, the moisture that does remain below a 1km does lend itself to fog development. Winds are a bit stronger over northern Iowa so at this point the higher chance of fog will be over southern into central Iowa. The trough that is arriving over the Pacific Northwest today will dig into the southwestern US and eject into the southern Plains Thursday night. As this trough lifts northeastward through the Ozarks and towards Michigan on Friday, it will deepen with both the 00z NAEFS and ECMWF ensemble showing this pressure being at the minimum percentile of the model climatology. With this strong low pressure passing southeast of Iowa, stronger winds, especially over the southern half of the state, is fairly certain, though the magnitude will vary depending on exact track and eventual pressure gradient field. At this point, forecast continues to teeter on advisory. As for precipitation and type, this too will depend on the low track as that will dictate thermal atmospheric profiles and how far north the moisture gets into Iowa. The latest cluster analysis shows an increased number of clusters compared to this time yesterday. However, the clusters with the most QPF (farther north, stronger with 500mb low) and the cluster with almost no QPF (weaker, faster with 500mb pattern) are outliers with around a 10% probability of occurrence each. With the remaining clusters, each would have QPF into at least our southern forecast area with the highest amounts into southeastern Iowa. The northern extent will be controlled not only by low track, but also by high pressure over southeastern Canada. This high in conjunction with the storm's low will feed dry, easterly air into the northern part of the precipitation shield, which will result in a quick tailing off of precipitation with northern/northwestward extent. Further, this dry air feed will likely delay precipitation onset by several hours over what is currently shown. After this system departs into the Great Lakes Friday night, Saturday through the day Sunday will be dry. There is not a strong push of cold air behind the Friday system such that temperatures will be similar on Saturday as they were Friday in the 30s and 40s and more centered in the 40s to perhaps low 50s south on Sunday. && .AVIATION.../For the 06Z TAFS through 06Z Wednesday night/ Issued at 1142 PM CST Tue Feb 28 2023 Stratus with some MVFR/IFR expected east of I35 and some limited early morning fog expected over the east and south with some vsby under a mile possible at OTM. Conditions should improve aft 15 with VFR returning. West winds increase with gusts 20kt or higher aft 18z. /re && .DMX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... NONE. && DISCUSSION...Ansorge AVIATION...REV
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service Des Moines IA 341 PM CST Tue Feb 28 2023 IAZ004>007-015>017-023>028-033>039-044>050-057>062-070>075- 081>086-092>097-012145- 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 CST Tue Feb 28 2023 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for portions of central Iowa. .DAY ONE...This afternoon and tonight No hazardous weather is expected at this time. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Wednesday through Monday Wintry weather and windy conditions may impact travel across central into southeast Iowa late Thursday into Friday. More details on precipitation type, amounts, and locations will continue to come into focus over the next few forecast cycles. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotters will not be needed. CURTIS
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
8 drought. Local standard time, as filed.
Severe drought conditions persisted across Palo Alto county during March as below normal precipitation and stream flow continued.
Severe drought conditions persisted across Kossuth county during March as below normal precipitation and stream flow continued.
Severe drought conditions persisted across much of Pocahontas county during March as below normal precipitation and stream flow continued.
Severe drought conditions persisted across much of Humboldt county during March as below normal precipitation and stream flow continued.
Severe drought conditions persisted across much of Sac county during March as below normal precipitation and stream flow continued.
Severe drought conditions persisted across much of Calhoun county during March as below normal precipitation and stream flow continued.
Severe drought conditions persisted across much of Webster county during March as below normal precipitation and stream flow continued.
Severe drought conditions persisted across western Crawford county during March as below normal precipitation and stream flow continued.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Iowa in 2023Every state in 2023This day in weather historyWarnings in Iowa, March 2023
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: 1088628, 1088629, 1088630, 1088631, 1088632, 1088634, 1088635, 1088636.