Weather

More severe weather was forecast to move in overnight, bringing large hail, damaging winds and even a brief tornado or two in parts of Western Iowa and Eastern Nebraska.

With the announcement, federal funding is available to affected individuals in the counties of Clay, Emmet, Lyon, Plymouth and Sioux.

Flooding in the Midwest killed at least two, collapsed a railroad bridge near Sioux City and sent water surging around a dam Monday after days of heavy rains that have forced hundreds of people to evacuate or be rescued from rising waters.

The bridge connecting North Sioux City, South Dakota, with Sioux City, Iowa, collapsed into the Big Sioux River late Sunday, an emergency manager said.

Gov. Kim Reynolds asks expedited approval for federal assistance.

Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a disaster declaration, opening up state assistance in responding to the disaster, as local officials closed roads, turned off power preemptively, called out volunteers to sandbag and dispatched rescue teams.

A “heat dome” over much of the Western United States has been driving temperatures much higher than usual for June.

Despite drier than typical conditions last week in Iowa, the abundant rainfall of preceding weeks has continued to percolate into deeper soil that can be important for crop growth, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

State Climatologist Justin Glisan said the state has had its sixth-wettest start to a year in the 152 years the data has been tracked.

Eight tornadoes touched down May 21 in Iowa, the strongest being a tornado packing up to 185 mph wind gusts and carving a 44-mile path from Page to Adair counties and severely damaging Greenfield.

The federal declaration comes as more than a third of Iowa’s counties are under state disaster proclamations after a week of dangerous and damaging weather.

Friday’s rain likely won’t worsen flooding in Eastern Iowa rivers because it was factored into flood warnings, the National Weather Service reported, but meteorologists will be watching the forecast for more rain on Sunday to see if that changes predicted river crests.