


Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Des Moines, IA
Issued by NWS Des Moines, IA
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836 FXUS63 KDMX 102321 AFDDMX Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Des Moines IA Issued by National Weather Service Duluth MN 621 PM CDT Thu Jul 10 2025 ...Updated for the 00z Aviation Discussion... .KEY MESSAGES... - Flood Watch for flash flooding in effect for portions of west- central Iowa this evening through tomorrow morning. Very heavy rainfall amounts in excess of 5 inches possible in localized areas within the watch. Rainfall rates of 2 inches per hour possible. - Enhanced Risk for severe weather in portions of western and northwest Iowa. Damaging winds in excess of 70mph possible with storms (10% chance locally) along with a tornado or two possible. The severe threat extends past sundown. - Additional severe weather, primarily winds and a tornado or two, possible in the southeast Friday. Scattered storms could persist much of Friday, becoming more widespread in the afternoon through Saturday morning southeast. && .DISCUSSION... Issued at 128 PM CDT Thu Jul 10 2025 A complex setup featuring both synoptic and mesoscale features will drive the short term forecast today. At the synoptic scale, there are two noticeable shortwaves visible in satellite imagery: one associated with the cloud swirls across southern MN and the other collocated with the EML and surface low in Nebraska. The MN shortwave will be the culprit for a cluster of thunderstorms across northern and northeast portions of the state this afternoon with wind being the main severe threat with these. Localized enhancements from a nearby MCV increase confidence in storm coverage. Further west, as expected, storms have sustained themselves along the gradient of the EML, even mixing some of it down in the form of heat bursts in places like Lincoln, NE. The parent shortwave will eject w est-to-east through the day and pull the instability axis with it, bringing this thunderstorm activity into western and central Iowa late this afternoon. Enough midlevel saturation exists above the EML that there could be thunderstorm development behind the gradient. The confidence in surface-based severe threats has increased given the clearing over western Iowa this morning with a damaging wind threat existing with storms on the gradient, plus with the narrow enhancement of deep-layer shear over 40kts thanks to the influence of both shortwaves nearby. Theta-e differences of -40K are forecasted for this same area of concern due to the dry air pocket from the EML. Can certainly foresee 70mph+ winds in parts of the line that forms. The Enhanced Risk upgrade is warranted for the wind risk. Another big concern, however, is the extra round of rainfall that only exacerbates soil moisture conditions for the heavy rainfall setup tonight, increasing the amount of rain that will become runoff. To that point, more moisture is on the way for tonight, seeing the +14C dew point at H850 at Dodge City. The MCS with wind in the evening will get caught along the warm front of the main cyclone. This boundary will land somewhere across central Iowa draped west-to- east. The MCS will then follow the forward propagation vector and likely move along the front. The boundary ingestion as well as the very moist profile will sustain at least a marginal wind threat through the night. With dew points sitting in the 70s, the surface- based potential will be extended past sunset due to the PBL taking longer to cool. Paired with the 0-3km shear reorienting to westerly around 30kts, can`t completely rule out a tornado threat near where the warm front intersects or where the line becomes favorable aligned. Boosting confidence in this is the elongation of low-level hodographs from the LLJ. Emphasis again, however, that heavy rainfall will be the main concern at this point. The overnight updates have often compared the setup to the Maddox Heavy Precipitation setup which rings true. The mean flow will also be oriented from W-to-E, the same as the front. Flow will also be light, making storm motions slower. The LLJ will angle right into the warm front, increasing moisture pooling and convergence along it. There we will find PWATs exceeding 2.25" and warm cloud depths around 4000m. Corfidi vectors will point to the ESE, meaning there will be some training of storms along the boundary, adding more to the heavy rain threat. How much rain? The overnight update captured the upper echelon well with a push towards 10 inches in localized areas. As far as spatial coverage of rain goes along the line, would side with the more broad coverage of global guidance like the GFS and NAM which have 2"+ all along the front in central Iowa. The HREF members` QPF has a more accurate representation of magnitude from mesoscale processes, but is not widespread enough along the line due to simulated cold pool processes artificially extinguishing CI. The most notable HREF feature is the HREF 6 hour QPF NP>3" lighting up over west-central Iowa. All-in-all, all collocated with the front, a widespread amounts over 2 inches are expected with localized amounts residing in the 5-10" range. We saw rainfall rates pushing 2 inches per hour last night so a repeat of these high rates is certain tonight. Rates like this over an urban area would lead to flash flooding issues and river rises are possible over basins that receive the highest amounts. A Flood Watch for flash flooding has been issued for portions of west-central Iowa. The evolution into Friday is less certain as mesoscale features will end up shoving the front south. The triple point will move into Iowa during the day Friday with storms reigniting on the surface warm front with peak heating. Current thinking is that southern Iowa has the highest chance of seeing storms as the persistent LLJ will counteract cold pool momentum, decreasing confidence in CAM solutions that shove the front into MO. The Slight Risk from the SPC is well-placed as well as the continued Slight Risk ERO for continued heavy rain along the warm front. Barring cloud debris, MLCAPE values along the warm front push 2,000 J/kg. Deep-layer shear will be at least 30kts nearest the parent low, but the higher magnitude found in models is questionable due to potential convective contamination. Shear vectors point parallel to the front, meaning that cold pools will quickly become unbalanced. Still, there will be a tornado threat early in storms` lifecycles, especially those that can form rotating updrafts. This is due to surface vorticity along the front paired with enhanced stretching potential from >8 C/km low-level lapse rates. Then the wind threat takes over as strong cold pools undercut updrafts. The cold front then replaces the warm front overnight with some training storm potential across mainly the south. Another inch or two could fall in the southeast, this thankfully being a region that would be able to take more rainfall. There has been an overall slowing trend with the exit of this last system, extending precipitation potential more into Saturday morning as well, mainly across the east. The cold front will then stall in northern MO through at least Sunday, then our next best shot at low-level moisture returns around midweek. && .AVIATION /00Z TAFS THROUGH 00Z FRIDAY/... Issued at 616 PM CDT Thu Jul 10 2025 Thunderstorm coverage will increase through the late evening and into the overnight. MVFR to IFR conditions in thunderstorms with heavy rain are expected. Wind gusts over 30 kts are likely with the strongest storms. MVFR ceilings are possible, a 50 to 70 percent chance, Friday morning. Rain shower and thunderstorm coverage may temporarily decreasing Friday morning in the 12-15Z timeframe, before increasing once again with daytime heating. && .HYDROLOGY... Issued at 334 AM CDT Thu Jul 10 2025 Soil moisture has recovered to a bit over northern Iowa, but there are still areas in the Cedar, upper Iowa, upper Des Moines, and Raccoon basins where the 0-10cm and 10-40cm soils are above the 80th percentile. The 1, 3, and 6 hour flash flood guidance (FFG) over central Iowa ranges from 1.5 to 2 inches, 2 to 2.5 inches, 2.5 and to 3 inches, respectively. Given the favorable meteorological environment of efficient, high rain rates along with potential for back-building storms that repeat rounds of rainfall over the same areas, low lying and poor drainage urban areas are likely to see ponding. Further, these FFG values may be exceeded and result in flash flooding with this risk perhaps highest over northern Iowa given the more saturated soils. While we take into account mature agricultural crops, which does lessen, but does not fully remove, the flash flooding potential tonight/early this morning. This will likely not be true later Thursday into Friday with the flash flooding chance increasing. Thus, WPC has slight risks of excessive rainfall (level 2 out of a max of 4) for both Thursday and Friday. Looking at rivers, many basins across the state have reduced channel capacity with USGS streamflows at any of the 7, 14, or 28 day averaging period showing at least normal with northeastern and parts of north central Iowa above normal to much above normal. With rivers not at baseflows and a few still in or near action stage, this heightens the potential for river flooding. As with any river flooding, what basins will be impacted the most will depend on the location of the highest rainfall totals. With the official river forecasts only taking into account 24 hours of rainfall, this evening`s forecasts did not take into account much of the rainfall. This will change with this (Thursday) morning`s river forecast cycle as rainfall through early Friday makes it into the forecast. Now, we typically look at the experimental, five-day Hydrologic Ensemble Forecasting Service (HEFS) and the ensemble rainfall hydrographs to provide some idea of expectations. While these often perform well and may in parts of our service area, they could be underdone due to model averaged rainfall. For example, the Wednesday 12z deterministic GFS had a swath of 2 to 4 inches between Highway 3 and I-80. Meanwhile, the 12z GEFS had no more than 2 inches through early Monday. Thus, the 12z run of the HEFS, which is based off of the GEFS rainfall, is likely not showing a realistic look at the potential for river flooding. If we look at the 5 day HEFS 10% chance of exceedance, numerous river forecast points reach action stage with a handful into minor flooding. For the ensemble QPF hydrograph, it does a bit better with rainfall when looking at the 95th percentile, 72 hour QPF that shows widespread rainfall of 3 to 4 inches. While this probably overplays the spatial extent and underdoes the max rainfall, it shows that most river forecast points do not reach flood stage/minor flooding unless the high end rainfall occurs. The National Water Model (NWM) forced by the GFS, which has the higher QPF mentioned above, does show low annual exceedance probabilities (AEP)/higher streamflows on a few areas in the western half of the state. So, the expectation is a minimum of stream rises on some of our basins with minor flooding possible in a handful of locations with these all dependent on where the higher rain falls. && .DMX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Flood Watch through Friday morning for IAZ033>036-044>048- 057>060-070>073. && $$ DISCUSSION...Jimenez AVIATION...DLH HYDROLOGY...Ansorge