Iowa Severe Weather Comes Out of Hibernation

After a historical drought of severe weather and tornadoes in the state of Iowa for 2021, the storms finally made a significant return on Sunday, June 20, 2021. When all was said and done, two confirmed tornadoes had touched down and many areas of damage were reported. The image above shows a Radarscope image corresponding to 4:48 pm CDT. The severe warning of this cell, at the time located near the town of Colfax in central Iowa, prompted my movement south from home to the planned location of North Liberty, Iowa. 

5:47 pm. In position at the Green State Credit Union headquarters in North Liberty and looking northwest. The most intense area of the severe-warned storm was located near Grinnell in central Iowa, about 57 miles distant. 

Similar image from 5:52 pm. Very soon, I realized the storm's track would be south of me, so I decided to head to Hills, Iowa--south of Iowa City.

I parked at the Casey's convenience store, with the intention of waiting for the approaching storm. While there, I captured this image of a separate severe storm, seen through the clouds, located about 76 miles to the northwest near Waterloo, Iowa at 6:34 pm. The severe warned storm directly to my west soon began weakening, and although a tornado warned cell trailed it a little farther south and west, I decided to head back home. Light availability was waning, and new severe-warned cells were approaching Cedar Rapids from the northwest.

By the time I returned to my general neighborhood area, these storms had also weakened. Above, a picturesque line of clouds approaches from my position at Alburnett Road at Bowstring Drive in the Bowman Meadows housing development. Panorama image looks north at 8:30 pm.

8:33 pm. Beautiful back-lit clouds looking northeast.

8:33 pm. Looking northwest.

Two days later (June 22), and another storm pushes east and quickly becomes severe warned. This cell slid north of my position near home in Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids. This image was captured at 5:33 pm CDT, with the most intense area of the storm cell being located just east of the town of Urbana in northern Linn County, about 14 miles distant. 

Radarscope capture, corresponding to 5:39 pm.

5:40 pm. Looking northwest at the storm, as seen from the sledding hill in the park.

Similar image from 5:41 pm. The elementary school is seen in the foreground. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.