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Tracking Atmospheric River for the West Coast; Space Weather Storming Continues

An atmospheric river will bring threats of gusty to high winds and heavy rainfall to California mainly Thursday into Saturday which may bring areas of flooding and wind damage. Heavy snow will be possible over the Sierra Nevada mountains Thursday into Friday associated with the atmospheric river. Minor to severe geomagnetic storming (space weather) is expected to continue into early Thursday. Read More >

Overview

Severe storms moved through much of the region on the evening of June 16th, 2014, producing torrential rainfall and strong to damaging winds. The line of storms developed in southwest Minnesota and northwest Iowa and drove eastward through the evening.

Some hail occurred too, with golf ball size hail reported near Strawberry Point, Iowa.

The hardest hit area was Platteville, WI where 5 injuries occurred, cars were flipped and some buildings destroyed. The storms also produced some flash flooding in portions of southeast Minnesota where 2-4 inches of rain fell in 2 hours or less.

The storms were the result of a strong flow of warm, moist air from the Gulf, a wavering west to east running frontal boundary, and a very unstable atmosphere.

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Radar loop from 5:30 to 11:45 p.m.
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