Midwest Thunderstorms

Scary!

Thunderstorms, among this summer's most powerful to date, lambasted sections of South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa overnight late Tuesday. Reports of mammoth 6-8" diameter hailstones near Dante, S.D., which if verified would rival the all-time record 7" diameter hail which punched holes in roofs in Aurora, Neb. on June 22, 2003, underscored the remarkable intensity of Tuesday's storm outbreak. With cloud tops which mushroomed to 72,000 ft., reports of 80 m.p.h. gusts near Rolfe and 4.50" of rain at Meridan--both in northwest Iowa--came as no surprise.

The eastbound storms threatened to push the record August rain tallies at LaCrosse, Wisc. (11.95") and Madison (10.49") to all-time monthly totals. Ironically, while these cities have never tallied bigger monthly totals, Duluth, Minn.--only several hundred miles to the north--has recorded only 0.24" this month, its driest August ever.