The National Weather Service sent a team into southwest Iowa this morning (Thursday) to look for any damage to trees, crops and buildings from last night’s two possible tornadoes. Meteorologist Van DeWald, in the weather service’s Omaha office, says the severe weather rumbled through both Harrison and Pottawattamie counties.

“We had a pretty strong storm that developed near Persia, Iowa, and then moved southwest toward Underwood,” DeWald says. “We do have reports of a couple of tornado touchdowns. We are sending out a survey crew to look at that to see if it’s one tornado or two and to find the beginning and ending points.” Persia and Underwood are about 16 miles apart and he says the area was pelted with large hail during the storm which struck about 6 P-M.

“I don’t believe there’s any injuries and there is some damage out there but it seems to be mostly to trees,” DeWald says. “I haven’t heard of a lot of structural damage at this time.” Iowans will need to keep an eye to the sky as more severe weather is possible within a matter of several hours.

“We do have a cold front coming down into the area,” DeWald says. “That could trigger some thunderstorms throughout the day today. Some of them could be strong, especially this afternoon into early evening.”

(Radio Iowa)