Thunderstorms rolled across southwest Iowa on Wednesday, bringing heavy rain, lightning and even hail, not quite the wintry weather some might expect this close to Halloween.
Omaha stayed dry, but the lightning was visible on the horizon.
We don't usually associate fall with thunderstorms, so how common is it to see storms, or even severe weather, in the cooler season?
The primary ingredients needed for severe storms, moisture and wind shear, are plentiful in spring. That's why our severe season runs from March to June.
Nationwide, in the fall these ingredients can come together again to produce a "second season" from October through December.
While our area has lots of wind shear, moisture struggles to make it this far north in the cool season, meaning most severe weather stays south.
While rare, the ingredients can line up for severe storms in the Heartland, and when they do, it can be memorable.
In October 2013, a massive EF-4 tornado hit the east side of Wayne, Nebraska. In Iowa, a tornado hit near Avoca on Veterans Day 2015.
In fact, one of our largest tornado outbreaks on record happened in the cold season, when 32 tornadoes hit the Heartland in December 2021.
So severe weather in the fall is very rare, but the lesson is that weather in the Midwest sometimes does not follow a calendar when it comes to snow or storms.
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