May 2 Severe Weather Update

Several showers and embedded thunderstorms have rolled through the state this morning and early afternoon. Currently these thunderstorms are occurring over Northern Iowa, with one thunderstorm warning issued earlier for Cerro Gordo and Worth counties for damaging winds up to 60 mph. Two reports have came out of that storm, one from Mason City and another from Thompson, IA; both with 60 mph and 59 mph measured wind gusts respectively.

With the lack of sunshine that occurred over the state this afternoon, the severe weather threat looks to have been limited. Extreme northeastern Iowa, mainly along the Mississippi are still in a favorable location for thunderstorms and showers to develop this afternoon/evening. Marginally severe hail and wind gusts are a threat with those storms, however tornadoes are also possible given the relation of the strong low pressure system that will be just to the west/northwest. A Mesoscale Discussion from the Storm Prediction Center indicates that they are watching portions of northeast Iowa, southeast Minnesota, southern Wisconsin and Illinois for the potential of severe weather including tornadoes. There is no watch posted at this time however...