Power Outage in Estherville, IA

Emergency manager report of downed power poles and trees across town. Estimated gusts at 60 mph.

Several trees were uprooted and some power lines were blown down. A window was broken out of a house.

Power outages and trees were downed in Gruver as reported by the Emmet County Sheriff.

Low pressure moved across Missouri on the 10th with an inverted trough extending north and northwest into Iowa. Cold air spilled south across the state, setting the stage for freezing rain initially, then moderate to heavy snow toward the end of the storm. Much of the storm was just to the northwest of the Des Moines CWA, however parts of Emmet and Kossuth Counties were affected, as well as a few areas in Palo Alto County. Freezing rain coated trees and power lines causing power outages with ice accumulations of one to two tenths of an inch. Following the ice, snow accumulated to near 4 inches in the northern parts Emmet and Kossuth Counties. The combination of snow, ice, and winds of 20 to 30 MPH caused damage and numerous event cancellations. About 2,000 Iowa homes and businesses were still without power on the morning of the 11th. More than 18,000 Iowa customers lost power in the storm at one point. Governor Terry Branstad issued a disaster proclamation for 10 counties: Clay, Dickinson, Emmet, Kossuth, Lyon, O���Brien, Osceola, Palo Alto, Plymouth and Sioux. A federal disaster declaration was made for Emmet County, as well as Dickinson, Lyon, and Osceola. MidAmerican Energy called in about 200 employees and contractors from Iowa, Missouri and Kansas for the cleanup and by the evening of the 11th power was returned to all but 40 customers.

A hot and unstable airmass was in place in Iowa ahead of an approaching cold front. High temperatures reached the mid to upper 90s with dew point readings around 70. By the late afternoon, heading had pushed the lifted indices to the -7 to -8 C. range with CAPE values around 3600 J/kg. The cold front made slow progress southeast into the state. Thunderstorms erupted along the front and produced a small area of high winds and hail. Hail was limited in size due the high freezing level. The late afternoon freezing level was around 15,800 feet. Nickel to quarter size hail fell during the early stages of the event in Emmet and Palo Alto Counties. As the system moved southeast the main mode of severe weather became high winds. The town of Armstrong, in Emmet County, was hard hit by high winds which caused widespread power outages in the city. The storms weakened rapidly as the progressed southeast. Initially, the storms were in a fairly favorable shear environment, but as they move southeast the moved out of the favorable environment into a weakly sheared environment over central and southern Iowa.

Thunderstorms over northwest Iowa weakened for a period of time during the mid afternoon hours as the storms transitioned from hail producers to wind producers. Winds approaching 50 MPH swept across Emmet County, knocking down trees and power lines. The heaviest damage occurred south of Wallingford.

A strong late winter storm system moved out of Colorado, then across Kansas and turned northeast into Iowa. A strong temperature contrast was in place with temperatures in the 70s to low 80s south of the low and sub-freezing temperatures to the north. Warm air was drawn north over the top of the cold air to the north of the low resulting in a band of freezing rain over northwest Iowa. Most of the freezing rain fell just to the northwest of the Des Moines CWA, however the far northwest corner of the Des Moines CWA received significant icing. Freezing rain began in the morning and continued through the day. Temperatures were just below freezing over Emmet and northwest Kossuth Counties. Ice accretions of one half to nearly one inch were reported over Emmet County, with slightly less over northwest Kossuth and Palo Alto Counties. The ice resulted in power outages across the area and numerous trees were reported downed by the heavy ice accumulation. As the storm headed toward southern Wisconsin in the evening, the freezing rain tapered off and eventually changed to light snow.

A very unstable airmass remained in place over Iowa. The outflow boundary from the previous nights convection continued to lift north during the evening hours. A very large MCC developed over South Dakota into Minnesota during the evening. Iowa was on the far south edge of this MCC. Strong low level winds of 50 kts fed into the south edge of the MCC. A series of beta bow elements translated east along the south edge of the complex. Initially, the storms moving along the south edge were tornadic just to the west of the DSM CWA. The storms became more bow oriented as the evening progressed with very strong winds reported in Emmet County. Gusts of 80 MPH or higher were reported. A barn was damaged near the town of Dolliver, with trees and power lines toppled in both the towns of Estherville and Dolliver. As the storms moved east, away from the instability axis, they weakened rapidly. Only Emmet County was affected by the wind and hail. In addition to the severe weather, very heavy rainfall accompanied the storms. At one point, .94 inches of rain fell in a 9 minute period at the ASOS at Estherville. Nearly one and one quarter inch fell in a 16 minute period. Rainfall over the northwest and north central part of the county was in the two to three and one half inch range. Some local flooding resulted from the heavy rainfall.

Only two days after temperatures were in the 70s and 80s, a winter type storm system rolled southeast out of the Rockies into the central U.S. Although moisture was limited with this system, very strong upper air dynamics were enough to overcome the shortfall in moisture. Snow began to fall during the early morning hours of the 7th, and intensified after sunrise. Snow fell at the rate of one to two inches per hour during the heaviest period of snow. Accumulation was slow due to the very warm ground temperatures. Four inch soil temperatures were in the low 50s at the time. The heaviest snow fell to the northwest of the CWA with over 10 inches reported in some areas. The north central counties of Iowa received over 6 inches of snow with a 7 to 9 inch band of snow extending from near Estherville southeast to Kanawha. Some of the heavier totals included 9 inches in Estherville and 7 inches at Graettinger, Emmetsburg, and Kanawha. Driving conditions deteriorated on secondary roads during the period of heaviest snow as some slush formed on the roads. A few school districts in north central Iowa did close early. The only problems from the storm were some scattered power outages due to tree branches breaking under the weight of the heavy snow. These were limited however.