Steamy days transition to more storms for Iowa

IOWA — Central Iowa received spotty rainfall in parts of the state on Tuesday, as the extreme heat of Monday broke. Early morning storms brought a lightning show to northern Iowa early Tuesday morning and the day ended with pockets of heavy rain in southern Iowa. Estimates of more than 3″ of rain fell in Ringgold County.

Here is a look at a few 24-hour totals (Tuesday morning through Wednesday morning):

• Diagonal 3.3″
• Creston 1.0″
• Osceola 0.81″
• Ottumwa 0.50″
• Centerville 0.36″
• Knoxville 0.36″
• Pella 0.24″
• Lamoni 0.20″
• Fort Dodge 0.16″
• Ames 0.13″
• Des Moines 0.08″

Temperatures will stay warm and heat index values will be hot! We will continue to have heat index values both Wednesday and Thursday afternoon in the mid to upper 90s.

A strong cold front arrives in Central Iowa on Thursday evening. This will bring thunderstorms and the potential for a few severe storms.

It will be mostly sunny during the day with the storms arriving after 5 PM, although a few spotty showers may pop up during the second half of the afternoon.

A few of the storms in northwest and northern Iowa on Thursday evening may be severe. The primary threats will be large hail and damaging winds. Otherwise, the storms will bring heavy rainfall and lightning through Central Iowa.

Much cooler air arrives on Friday. Highs will drop to the 80s on Friday and Saturday and the 70s on Sunday into next week.

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