DES MOINES, Iowa — Stormy weather made appearances through parts of Iowa Monday afternoon and night. Strong to severe storms developed in western and northwestern counties, resulting in several tornado warnings, and which dropped hail and rain. A tornado warning that was issued for northeastern Cass County at around 8:45-p.m., was canceled at 9:20-p.m. or  about 15 minutes ahead of its expected expiration.

Eleven northwest Iowa counties were under a severe thunderstorm watch through 11 p.m. Monday, while other counties including Cass, were under a Tornado Watch until midnight. Lewis Firefighter Tim Pope sent KJAN a photo of a funnel cloud that appeared just west of Cold Springs State Park, at around 8:36-p.m., Monday.

Thunderstorm wind damage about three-miles west of Anita was reported at around 9:04-p.m. Monday, by a trained storm spotter, who said there numerous tree branches down, and nickel-sized hail.  Three-quarters inch (.75″) diameter hail (dime-to-penny-size) was reported in Adair a little after 9-p.m., Monday.

Complicating the situation, was the fact the National Weather Service’ weather radio system in Valley, Nebraska, was down during the storm events for mandatory maintenance, which means persons who relied solely on their weather radios for bulletins, had to rely instead on other forms of notification, including their local, county messages from Alert Iowa, and/or local media. The NWS Weather Radio out of Nebraska, which serves southwest Iowa, was expected to be down through Wednesday, April 30th.