This Day In Weather History May 25

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

1903: Several tornadoes struck southwestern, southern, and central Iowa during the late afternoon and evening hours. One storm produced a tornado that moved northward across southern sections of Des Moines before turning toward the northwest near the junction of the Des Moines and Racoon rivers. There may have been a second tornado about a mile to the northeast at the same time. Two people were killed and several injured in Des Moines. Further south a tornado struck Creston resulting in several fatalities and injuries and destroying a church and about a dozen homes. Another tornado struck portions of northeastern Monroe and southwestern Mahaska counties, destroying several residences in the small mining camp of Buxton on the Chicago and Northwestern railroad. Several people in two families were killed and several more were seriously injured. This tornado also appears to have taken a very unusual path with eyewitnesses reporting that it traveled from southeast to northwest similar to the storm in Des Moines. Thunderstorms also produced heavy rain across the area with 3.5 inches falling in a short time in Oskaloosa where Penn College was struck by lightning, damaging at least one building. An estimated 5 inches of rain fell at Adel in about an hour and a half, producing a flash flood that swept through the town severely damaging many buildings and watching out roads and railroad tracks. An observer in downtown Adel wrote that the water was rushing down the street “four and five feet deep” and flooded every basement and cellar in the city. Further southwest another tornado struck a dormitory in Glenwood, killing two girls and injuring nearly a dozen others. At Des Moines this was the first of a record 12 consecutive days on which measurable rain fell.

Source: National Weather Service