2020 Severe Weather Experiences: Year In Review

2020 was a year out of the ordinary indeed. The annual Linn County Severe Weather Spotter Training by the National Weather Service in the Quad Cities got in just under the gun of the growing Covid-19 pandemic on Saturday, March 7, 2020. By the following Thursday, the NWS DVN had shut down all in-person training sessions. A similar domino effect was occurring throughout the country, with church services, restaurants, basketball tournaments and myriad other scheduled events all cancelling. Spotting and intercepting severe weather was now for the individual. To add insult to injury, two large destructive storm events would strike the Cedar Rapids metro area in 2020, causing damage in the millions of dollars. The following images have been selected from severe weather events this past year that I intercepted and/or spotted for. 

6:08 pm CDT, March 28, 2020: (Image above) A tornado-warned cell looking north from Interstate 380, just north of the town of Brandon in Buchanan County, Iowa. The storm cell, located about 6 miles distant in Black Hawk County, featured a lengthy inflow cloud.

6:40 pm CDT, April 7, 2020:  Large hail falls in our back yard in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The first of two widespread destructive storms of the year. Duration of the event here was about ten minutes. The inset picture at lower left shows the largest stone harvested from our back yard--2.5 inches in width! This was probably the largest hail stone I have ever encountered. The storm was responsible for millions in dollars in damage throughout Eastern Iowa and kept insurance and roofing companies busy throughout the year.

7:55 pm CDT, May 14, 2020: Looking southwest at a wall cloud, seen from my spotting position on Yucca Avenue, about a tenth-mile south of Highway 92, about one mile east of US Highway 218, and about 1.8 miles east of Ainsworth, Iowa in Washington County. The wall cloud was about 20 miles distant, near the town of Brighton in Washington County.

2:27 pm CDT, May 26, 2020: Wall cloud passing to my right, southwest of my location on US Highway 30 at V40/Highway 131, about 4 miles northeast of Belle Plaine, Iowa in Benton County, Iowa. The wall cloud was about 8 miles distant. The painted grain bin at left would later be destroyed in the August 10 derecho.

7:03 pm CDT, June 3, 2020: Beautifully spreading cumulonimbus anvil cloud to the southeast of my spotting location on Alburnett Road in the Bowman Meadows housing development in Marion, Iowa. The storm was located about 55 miles distant, and about 6 miles southeast of Durant, Iowa. The anvil cloud stretched some 50 miles from left-to-right in the image, and at times showed a peeking overshooting top. 

1:49 pm CDT, June 4, 2020: Northbound on Highway 13 just south of County Home Road, just north of Marion, Iowa in Linn County. The most intense area of the severe-warned storm was located about 16 miles distant, near the town of Troy Mills in Linn County. This storm began to weaken, and lost its severe warning about 5 minutes later.

4:17 pm CDT, June 21, 2020: Rain shafts drop from departing severe-warned storm to my east, located near Anamosa, Iowa in Jones County--about 16 miles distant. Image was captured from North 10th Street in Marion, Iowa, about a quarter-mile south of County Home Road.

3:16 pm CDT, June 26, 2020: Wall cloud to my northeast as seen from East Mission Road, about .8-mile east of Strawberry Point, Iowa in Clayton County. Storm is about 11 miles distant.

9:18 am CDT, June 27, 2020. Brief possible wall cloud in tornado-warned cell, looking southwest from Highway 330 at N99th Avenue W in northwest Jasper County, Iowa. The wall cloud was located about 12 miles distant. iPhone 6-Plus camera.

8:30 pm CDT, July 7, 2020: Severe-warned storm cell to the northwest, featuring a colorful anvil cloud near sunset, seen from the Bowman Meadows housing development in Marion, Iowa. The most intense area of this storm was located about 55 miles distant, near the town of Reinbeck, in Black Hawk County.

10:22 am CDT, July 11, 2020: Incoming shelf cloud along a gust front to the west, as seen from Stamy Road at West Main Street in Robins, Iowa in Linn County. The leading edge of the storm was about 8 miles distant. 60-plus mph winds occurred from this storm as it blew through. iPhone 6-Plus camera.

1:05 pm CDT, August 10, 2020: The "Grandaddy" of them all. Wind gusts approaching 100 mph blast against my spotting vehicle, located on Quiver Court just south of Boyson Road (background) in Marion, Iowa. A pickup truck, who was using my vehicle as a wind break, can be seen in my sideview mirror.  Power in some local places was out for several weeks, if not months. The aftermath was the most widespread destruction I have witnessed in my life. The derecho tracked for 770 miles, and caused 7.5 billion dollars in damage, ranking it the fourth costliest storm in US history. 

3:57 pm CDT, August 28, 2020. Same spotting location as for the derecho. A severe-warned cell approaches from the west, about 40 miles distant, near the town of Traer, in Tama County, Iowa. The Cedar Rapids metro area was prepared to sound sirens if wind speeds reached 40 mph (lower than the 58 mph severe norm), because of the danger of already broken tree branches from the recent derecho. The storm would pass to the north here, with no sirens sounded. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera images.