Photo Courtesy of ISU Mesolab

Thursday night, severe storms rolled through southeast Iowa. The National Weather Service in the Quad Cities issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for portions of Keokuk and Washington Counties at 7:30p.m. The main threats for the storm were hail up to 1″ inch in diameter, 50 mile per hour wind gusts and rainfall rates higher than one inch per hour, all radar indicated. The National Weather Service extended the warning at 8p.m. to include portions of Washington, Johnson, Louisa and Muscatine counties.

Trained weather spotters in southern Washington County, Louisa County near Morning Sun, western Johnson County and central Iowa County all reported hail up to 1″ in diameter. Sigourney received three quarters of an inch of rainfall. Washington, Kalona, Wellman, Wayland and Columbus Junction received one half inch. Three members of the KCII Severe Weather Action Team responded with coverage live on-air. Had the power gone out, coverage would have continued with KCII’s backup generators. The one to count on for up to the minute severe weather coverage is AM and FM KCII.