When severe storms are forecast in Iowa on Wednesday

IOWA — Steady rainfall is moving through Central Iowa this morning and is just the beginning of what will be an active day to night of severe weather.

An area of low pressure and warm front is lifting through this morning, bringing in the rain. As the cold front swings through later tonight, a few severe storms look to fire up in southwest Iowa.

The strength of tonight’s storms will really depend on the amount of clearing we get this afternoon to destabilize the atmosphere. The combination of the cold front and outflow boundaries from the morning rain will be the focusing mechanism of these storms. The storms will develop in Eastern Nebraska around 7 PM and then move east into western Iowa through 10 PM, crossing Central Iowa late tonight with heavy rain.

A few of these storms may produce brief tornadoes in southwest Iowa and damaging winds and large hail as they move through western counties of the state. The threat of tornadoes will be early on in the storms’ development in eastern Nebraska and far western Iowa. We see the most indications of enough spin potential and low cloud levels to allow brief tornado spin-ups further west. The transition to damaging winds and large hail will take place later into the night as the storms move further into Central Iowa.

Heavy rain will also set up for much of Central Iowa in the overnight with some pockets of 2 to 3″ of rain possible. The rain should come to an end by 6 AM on Thursday.

For a full look at the forecast, visit our weather page here.

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