MOLINE, Ill. — While storms on Tuesday, May 21 brought widespread wind damage and hail to the Midwest, the Quad Cities region saw significantly less damage than other areas.
The same storm system that ripped across Iowa and ravaged the community of Greenfield, Iowa was largely diminished when it reached the Quad Cities area. The most severe weather observed in the region was winds up to 80-100 mph and golf ball-sized hail, along with a single brief tornado warning.
So naturally, residents are wondering why the storm didn't produce the damage that forecasts had previously predicted. News 8 spoke with National Weather Service (NWS) Warning Coordination Meteorologist Rich Kinney, who said the lack of severe storms doesn't mean the forecasts ahead of Tuesday's storms were inaccurate.
“Looking at a map of all the plotted reports and if you do that then you would, if you didn’t get hit by severe weather you’d probably conclude that you were really fortunate because the coverage of severe weather was pretty widespread,” Kinney said.
The National Weather Service confirmed there were no tornadoes in the region, but some of the wind reports were just as strong as a weak tornado and capable of causing considerable damage.
“We didn’t get that big tornado day that we were thinking. The elements didn’t quite come together for that. But we had many many many storms with those 80 to 100 mile an hour straight line winds. So we certainly consider it a significant weather event.”
On Wednesday, May 22, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds issued disaster emergency proclamations for Muscatine County and Clinton Counties, along with 15 other counties across the state, to aid residents in storm recovery efforts.
Tuesday 5/21 Storm Recap for the Quad Cities Region
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