Power Outage in Ottumwa, IA

Public reported large branches and limbs down and power out for a bit. Time estimated from radar.

Trained spotter reported estimated 50 to 60 mph wind gusts, and part of a tree down on a power line on the south side of Ottumwa.

Trained spotter reported a large tree limb down and a power line down near the tree limb.

Public reported, via the mPING app, 3 inch tree limbs and power poles broken.

Public reported a large tree down over power lines.

Law Enforcement reported power lines down in town.

Public reported multiple areas with power lines down. Photo posted on facebook.

Trained spotter reported numerous tree limbs down on houses and powerlines. Time estimated from radar. An estimated 14 inch diameter tree was snapped near the base. Power was out in portions of town.

This tornado moved from Monroe into Wapello county. This is the Wapello county portion. The circulation for this short-lived tornado originated on the northern flank of a small squall line bow segment. This circulation rapidly tightened south of Eddyville and broke off the line, where it became tornadic. Damage included multiple farmsteads that lost silos and outbuildings, bent power lines, snapped trees, and a house that lost its roof and east wall. Downburst damage also occurred upstream and downstream of the tornado track.

Media report of narrow swath of wind damage going from NW to SE from Monroe-Wapello Road to 140th street. Multiple farm silos and outbuildings damaged or destroyed. Large wooden power lines leaning or snapped. Time radar estimated.

Law enforcement reported a power pole downed by thunderstorm winds.

Tornado formed initially as a broad circulation east of Highland Center. First damage was to a farm site where a chicken barn was destroyed and two power poles were snapped. As the tornado traveled quickly to the northeast and struck utility poles producing a considerable lean. The tornado then continued into Keokuk county.

Tornado formed initially as a broad circulation east of Highland Center. First damage was to a farm site where a chicken barn was destroyed and two power poles were snapped. As the tornado traveled quickly to the northeast and struck utility poles producing a considerable lean. The tornado then continued into Keokuk county.

Trees and power lines down in town.

Police reported a power pole and lines down on the south side of Ottumwa.

Power outages reported in Ottumwa.

An amplified upper level trough, cut off at times, swept through Kansas, Missouri and Illinois. The attendant surface low also swept through Kansas and Missouri on a similar path, well south of Iowa. The surface low was tightly wound, slowly deepening from about 998mb to 994mb as it traveled south of the state. Precipitation associated with the warm advection wing and wrap around areas initially saw rainfall during the evening and overnight hours of the 24th into the 25th before transitioning over to snow as colder air filtered in. An extremely tight precipitation/snowfall gradient set up roughly along Interstate 80 and south as precipitation processes battled a cold, dry air intrusion from the north. As a result, gradients in the snowfall were so tight that some areas that received 6 to 8 inches of snowfall or more were only a dozen or so miles south of areas that received as little as an inch or less. Throughout the day, the heaviest banded snowfall remained situated over southern Iowa, resulting in numerous reported snowfall amounts in excess of a foot and as high as 16 to 17 inches. While the snow tended to be on the heavy and wet side, strong winds on the backside of the low, gusting in excess of 40 mph regularly, helped degrade conditions and keep visibilities well below a quarter to half mile throughout much of the mid to late morning and afternoon. ||As one might imagine, numerous travel issues were reported in the heaviest hit areas, including dozens of vehicles in ditches along Interstate 35 south of Des Moines, and temporary closures of the interstate due to disabled vehicles on the roadway. Fortunately, reported power issues were generally intermittent, and tree damage was not substantial.

A low pressure system moved into the state during the day, dragging behind it a cold front that helped trigger off storms across portions of central and southern Iowa. Hail, damaging winds and a tornado occurred with the storms. The tornado moved from Monroe County into Wapello County damaging multiple farmsteads, power poles and a house.

A cold front moved into Iowa from the northwest. The airmass was quite unstable with CAPE values in the 4000-5000 J/kg range and lifted indices around -8 C. Afternoon highs reached the upper 80s to low 90s, with dewpoints in the low to mid 70s ahead of the cold front. Precipitable water was quite high with 1.6 to 2 inches available. Scattered thunderstorms formed to the west of Iowa initially in a scattered line. They coalesced into a small forward propagating MCS by the evening hours. The airmass was moderately sheared with 40 to 45 kts of effective shear. The freezing level was quite high, around 14,500 feet, so hail was limited. CAPE in the -10 to -30 C layer of the atmosphere was between 700 and 1100 J/kg. The storms produced high winds as the primary mode of severe weather. This was not too surprising considering there was 1500 J/kg of downdraft CAPE available just ahead of the MCS. Initially the storms did produce hail as the cells were more discrete. Dime to quarter size hail was reported in Crawford and Audubon Counties. The system quickly became a wind event as it raced across the southern third to half of Iowa. Winds speeds of 60 to 70 MPH were common along its path. The highest measured wind gust was 71 MPH northwest of Creston. There were numerous reports of trees and power lines downed all along the path. Damage was done to some house roofs in the town of Creston, with a tree reportedly falling onto one house in Creston. Roof damage was also reported in Madison County with an American Legion building damaged in Macksburg. High winds also blew a camper off of its jacks in Lucas County in Williamson. High winds damaged outbuildings, peeling back roofs and blowing over sheds across Adair, Clarke, and Madison County. High winds blew out a large window at a Walmart in Marion County in Knoxville. During the early morning hours, strong thunderstorms developed over parts of northern Iowa, also along the front. For the most part they remained below severe levels. One of the storms produced 60 to 65 MPH winds in Franklin County at Hampton. Numerous trees were downed and power was knocked out for much of the city.

A strong push of theta-e took place during the early morning hours. A stationary frontal boundary remained south of Iowa, setting the stage for another MCS to develop. The airmass was relatively unstable with CAPE around 2000 J/kg just south of the front. The low level jet was not real strong, in the 25 to 30 kt range. Thunderstorms developed after midnight over eastern Nebraska. The storms moved into southwest Iowa and lifted northeast into the central counties during the predawn hours. The storms accelerated as they moved through Iowa, producing high winds across the southern third of the state. Trees and power lines were toppled. Damage was reported to roofs in Taylor and Clarke Counties by the high winds. Heavy rain fell in the Ottumwa area, with reports of 2 inches in one hours time. Flash flooding occurred in part of the city with 2 feet of flowing water reported in parts of the downtown area.

January brought only near normal snowfall totals, but much of it came from only two strong storms. The first event on the 6th-7th brought a statewide average of 5.1 inches of snow and was accompanied by wind gusts of 35 to 45 mph. Greatest snow fell from northwest, through central, into east central Iowa where up to 8 inches accumulated, while the highest winds were over the northwest. The second storm brought a statewide average of only 2.1 inches of snow. However, the storm was accompanied by widespread wind gusts over 40 mph with Sioux City reporting winds to 55 mph. Meanwhile another storm brought freezing rain to nearly all of Iowa on the 20th. Rain amounts exceeded an inch over parts of far southeastern Iowa but the worst icing conditions were over west central and central parts of the state where lower temperatures allowed an icy glaze of about one-half inch thick. The ice, along with wind gusts over 35 mph, brought down many tree limbs and power lines. Another storm on the 23rd/24th brought an average of nearly one-half inch of rain to the state with greatest amounts exceeding an inch over some far eastern Iowa locations. Above normal temperatures, combined with the rainfall on the 23rd/24th resulted in minor flooding in Bussey and Eddyville. The flooding did not cause any damage and was limited by the return of cold air and additional snowfall which stopped the water level rises. There was a statewide average of 7.7 inches of snowfall during January. This total is 0.5 inches less than normal, yet ranks as the 48th greatest January total among 123 years of records. Thanks to the near-record December 2009 snowfall, the season-to-date statewide average snowfall amount stands at 31.6 inches or 12.2 inches above normal for the fourth highest total of record at this point in the season.

A strong trough of low pressure in the upper atmosphere moved into the southwest U.S. late on the 17th and early on the 18th. The system was very fast moving with a strong jet of 165 kts streaming up the east side of the trough. A short wave ejected out of the trough and raced northeast through the central U.S., reaching Illinois by the morning of the 19th. Low pressure at the surface formed over western Kansas during the afternoon of the 18th. It moved to northeast Kansas by evening, and to near Burlington, IA by sunrise on the 19th. A strong low level jet pushed moisture over a polar airmass that was in place over Iowa. In addition, the atmosphere became quite unstable for December over the state, resulting in the development of thunderstorms over a large part of Iowa during the overnight hours of the 18th into the 19th. Temperatures over southern Iowa remained in the 20s through the event, though the cold layer was quite shallow. Temperatures aloft rose well above freezing, thus most of the precipitation that fell came in the form of freezing rain. The freezing rain turned to sleet and snow briefly before ending. Heavy ice accumulations occurred over southern Iowa, especially the southwest and southeast parts of the DSM CWA. Ice accrual reached one half inch over Davis County, and around 0.6 inches in Adams Counties for the heaviest amounts. Most of the area received between 0.25 and 0.4 inches of ice. Spotty power outages were reported, however much of the power problems were mitigated by efforts the previous summer with tree trimming by the power utilities. Roads became very icy with all roads 100% ice covered. Nearly all schools and many activities were cancelled for the 19th due to the ice.

The weather situation remained unchanged for the most part across the state. A weak east-west boundary extended across the central sections of the state. The air mass became unstable during peak afternoon heating with the MUCAPE reaching about 2000 J/kg and the lifted index around -6 C. The environment was weakly sheared with 20 to 25 kts of effective shear available. There was a fair amount of downdraft CAPE available, 800 to 1000 J/kg. The freezing level was relatively low at 12,000 feet by late afternoon. The amount of CAPE in the -10 to -30 C. layer of the atmosphere was around 300 J/kg. Thunderstorms erupted along the boundary during the mid to late afternoon hours. A few of the storms became severe over south central and southwest Iowa with hail of penny to nickel size reported with some of the stronger storms. The storms died down around sunset, but did strengthen again during the mid to late evening hours. One storm became severe over Wapello County and produced a 59 MPH wind gust at the Ottumwa Airport. The same storm produced nickel size hail and strong winds in the Agency area, knocking out power in the city.

Another round of freezing rain moved into Iowa during the early morninghours of the 3rd. Warm air remained in place aloft with 850 mbtemperatures in the +5 to +7 C. range. A low level jet of 30 knotspushed warm air over the top of the cool dome and produced a large areaof freezing rain and ice pellets. An upper level disturbance moved northeast into the area to enhance the lift. At the surface, therewasn't a great deal to talk about with a stationary front to the south. It was a case of warm air advection or over running. Freezing rainglazed over roads, trees, and power lines with temperatures in the 20s during the event. Roads became very slick, causing some travelproblems. Some tree limbs were reported down, causing power lines to come down as well in scattered areas of southern Iowa. The hardest hit was in the Ottumwa area.

A strong cold front moved southeast across the state during the evening of the 1st into the early morning hours of the 2nd. The air mass ahead of the front was quite unstable with surface dew point temperatures approaching 70 degrees F. in many locations. Lifted Indices fell below -5 C. as well. Thunderstorms erupted during the early evening hours in the vicinity of the front. Many of them produced hail, though most of it was below severe levels. The first of the hail began over far northwest Iowa. A 120 mile long swath of severe crop damage occurred from northwest Iowa into Palo Alto County. In Palo Alto County the hail was nickle size and totally destroyed about 11,000 acres of crops over the northwest quarter of the county. Damage was also done to some of the roofs in the area by the hail and gusty wind. In Crawford County, hail to around an inch or just slightly less was reported at several places. The thunderstorms continued to develop east during the evening, but failed to produce severe weather for a few hours. When the storms reached Wapello County, high winds struck the Ottumwa area. Storm survey results indicated the event was a straight line wind or microburst event. Winds of 70 to 80 MPH were reported from just southwest of Ottumwa into the south sections of the city. Damage was spotty with most of it limited to trees, power line, and some minor structural damage to buildings.

At long last, the stationary front that had been over northwest Iowa for several days previous finally began to move southeast as a cold front. A surface low pressure moved northeast along the front during the previous night and was located to the north of Iowa on the afternoon of the first. A mid level cap of warm air was in place over most of Iowa, preventing convection from firing until the late afternoon hours. Surface based CAPE was in excess of 5000 J/kg by the mid afternoon hours. A line of thunderstorms erupted along the cold front by the late afternoon hours. The sheer profile was somewhat weak and thus most of the storms remained below severe limits. Storms did become severe along one area of the line in Wapello and a small part of Mahaska Counties. The main outcome of the severe storms was high winds and hail. Winds as high as 75 MPH were reported by law enforcement officials in Wapello County. There were numerous trees toppled by the winds and power line damage was reported as well. Hail up to the size of golf balls was reported in Chillicothe. The north edge of the storm produced nickle size hail and 60 MPH winds over southeast Mahaska County as well. One tornado was observed as it passed north of the Ottumwa area. The tornado caused little damage as it tracked across open country.

The seasons first winter storm moved across the Rockies during the day on the 17th. By evening a strong low pressure moved into Kansas. Very strong winds in the low levels of 40 to 55 knots drew moisture north from the Gulf of Mexico. Strong convection developed ahead of a warm front extending east from the low, across Kansas into Missouri. The convection lifted north into the colder air. As it did, rainfall turned to freezing rain and sleet along the Iowa and Missouri border. Moderate freezing rain was reported for a few hours during the height of the storm across southern Iowa, along with occasional reports of thunder. Most of the south two tiers of counties received at least one quarter of an inch of freezing rain. This caused some tree limbs to snap and knocked out power in area. By late in the storm, the freezing rain changed to sleet with up to an inch of sleet accumulation reported in spots. Ottumwa was one of the locations with at least an inch of sleet from the storm. After sunrise on the 18th, the sleet changed over to light snow for several hours.