Severe storms made their way through the Corn Belt Monday that left some crops and grain bins in their wake.
HAT Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin says a very strong, wind-driven front started in the Northern and Eastern Plains and ripped through Iowa, Illinois, and then Indiana.
“Not so much heavy rain with it. Rain totals, generally, were in that half to one-inch range, but 60, 70, 80 mile an hour winds blasting through. I saw Marshalltown, Iowa picked up 99 mile an hour wind gusts. If you want to put it in farming terms, this was one hell of a storm.”
The storm did weaken as it reached Indiana, but Martin says, “We saw the storm pack a pretty good punch as it moved into western and northwestern parts of the state. We did see, I believe, a potential tornado, probably a small one, F0-F1 probably, up in the Elkhart County area. So, I know a lot of people have seen the grain bin damage out in Iowa, things like that. We had some bin damage and some bin sites that were destroyed in the Elkhart County area. Some straight-line winds other places, a few funnels being reported, some swirling winds.
“Crop damage has not seemed to be that big across the state. What we’re seeing is mostly tree and infrastructure damage,” Martin added.
As for what’s ahead in the forecast, many farmers across the state have been blessed with timely rains recently. Martin says those will likely continue.
“We’ll end up with moisture here late this week into early next on Sunday into Monday. We’ll take all of next week off and then I think we’ll get another batch of rain to follow that up as we get started in the 11 to 16-day forecast window. So, timely rain.”
You can hear Martin’s Indiana Farm Forecast daily in our podcast found below or on iTunes.