This is what a "slight risk" classification for severe weather in Iowa turned into today:







Marshalltown and Pella are about an hour away from me, Bondurant is about 20 minutes. These storms developed out of thin air just east of Des Moines and trucked across the state. I could see the storm cells from my office, they were pretty darn high, sheared off at the top. It was perfectly sunny and cloud free above and to the west of me. Luckily, it sounds like nobody died or was severely hurt.

Wow! I've never seen tornadoes up close and personal like that.

I live 10 miles west of Bondurant. It was sunny and calm here while the tornado was going on. Nothing showing on radar at the time. Very surprised to hear there was a tornado.

I will be responding to a Red Cross disaster callout tomorrow. We are waiting for utilities etc. to be made safe before we can enter. At this point a business is known to be heavily damaged in Pella and Marshalltown appears to have the most widespread damage. In Bondurant I was told there were 7-8 houses on one street damaged. I heard there were injuries at the business but no confirmation of that.

My elderly parents live in Marshalltown, my hometown...was difficult getting in touch but finally did. They were in shelter and live on the south part of town and are ok.

Checked with some classmates and they reported parts of town are unrecognizable and some areas are like a war zone.

Luckily, no major injuries and no deaths. Early warning probably saved countless lives today.

That looked really intense!

I’ve lived through a direct hit with an F2 and had one pass right over our house within the past couple of year and too close to several others. They seem to like certain areas close by. Glad we bought a home with a decent basement. I hate tornadoes.

Can’t say I’ve been missing those, the last couple of years here. I’ve been fairly close to one once, pictures simply do not capture just how big they are. I hope it is just property damage there and no serious injuries or fatalities.

Good thing the guy in the second video was able to get one last lawn mowing in before the tornado touched down.

yeah they are attention getters.

but I will take them all day every month over earth quakes, floods, huge brush fires , mud slides and hurricanes.

Dad and I were on the coralville reservoir in the jon boat when a very black tornado was in the area it was a big ole power house, ominous as all hell.

it turned 90 degrees and headed across the lake and before we could decide weather we should poop or go crazy ,
it hit the surface of the lake and turned bright white.

it was really something to see

Despite living in MO and IA all my life, I've yet to see one. I keep moving before they hit. A couple years after I moved into St Louis the tornado that hit the airport went over where we used to live in Maryland Heights. A couple years after I was done with undergrad a tornado hit Kirksville, MO.

St. Louis is more likely to get an earthquake anyway. I agree with Bendable though, your odds of getting injured by a tornado have to be somewhere around lottery odds. I imagine lightning is far higher and that is pretty rare.

 
I've seen them when we lived in NE Texas, but never experienced one close up. When I would visit my Dad in KS, it's so flat you can see thundercells from miles away, some of them with tornadoes dropping from them. Meanwhile you are miles away and the sun is shining.
 
Here in AZ, they are rare, but our summer storms often produce microbursts, which can be just as damaging.
 

Well it was an accurate forecast, there was a slight risk of severe weather - and probability caught up with it.

Amazing videos.

70 y.o. trees and tornados = many hours with the chain saws.

2006 was a bad year for Iowa City , Ia
https://www.google.com/search?...8i30k1.0.9EyH1qaLUuU

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