Fast Mover, Bad Dealer

Unlike some past gust front storms that moved through the Cedar Rapids/Marion, Iowa area this year, this particular one packed some punch. Soundings of city sirens preceded these views of the approaching storm by about 10 minutes. 60-80 mph winds accompanied the storm as it passed through, ripping up large trees and damaging structures. Also in its wake were deluges of unwanted rain causing flash flooding. The top three images look NW from the edge of the grounds at Christ Community United Methodist Church in Marion. The top two images were taken at 2:50 PM, Monday, June 30, 2014, and within five minutes the storm had reached this location. The bottom image is a radar screen capture, indicating the especially intense area of the line seen in the photographs (large arrow), storm movement (small arrows) and camera location (white dot). I scrambled to my car, pointed the front into the wind and rode out this storm, which also included pea size hail.