EF2 Tornado — Jasper, Iowa

2022-03-05 · near Vandalia, Jasper, Iowa

Event narrative

The tornado moved into Jasper county from Polk county. The tornado remained largely in rural areas for much of its path across Jasper county. Despite its rural venture, the tornado impacted several residences in western Jasper county producing several areas of EF2 damage. The tornado did pass not far from the southeast side of Colfax damaging structures near the intersection of Highway 117 and S 44th Avenue West. The tornado crossed Interstate 80 east of Colfax near mile marker 160 and then proceeded towards Newton, grazing both the communities of Lambs Grove and Newton on the north sides. Most of the damage was to trees and minor damage to structures including loss of shingles and broken windows. The tornado did remove about a 100 foot segment of the roof of the former TPI Composites Plant northeast of Newton with the tornado dissipating shortly thereafter. In all, the tornado had a path length of just over 70 miles and passed through four counties including Madison, Warren, Polk and Jasper. The six deaths were the most by a tornado in Iowa since the Parkersburg tornado in May of 2008. The damage was into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Wider weather episode

On March 5, 2022 a total of 15 tornadoes occurred across the state of Iowa as a warm front lifted across the area. Supercells initially developed across southwest Iowa in the vicinity of the triple point of the surface low with strong, rotating updrafts. Longevity was initially lacking with the storms, producing funnel clouds, brief tornadoes, and hail in southwest Iowa. As the cells moved northeast and matured, larger hail began to fall with golf ball sized hail falling in Adams county and baseball sized hail into Adair county. Following this period of large hail the storms produced a tornado which would remain on the ground for just over 70 miles, carving a path across central Iowa from southwest of Winterset to just northeast of Newton. The tornado peaked in Winterset, Iowa, producing EF-4 damage with wind speeds estimated near 170 mph. The tornado continued across the southern portion of the Des Moines metro area and to Newton. This is the furthest north EF-4 tornado in the CONUS this early in the year on record, the first EF-4 tornado in Iowa since October 4, 2013 which occurred in Woodbury and Cherokee Counties, and is the second longest tornado in Iowa since 1980, behind the longest occurring on June 7, 1984 at a length of 117 miles across southern Iowa. As the storm skimmed the southern Des Moines metro, cells across south central became tornadic, producing several destructive tornadoes including an EF-3 tornado in Chariton, Iowa. This heartbreaking day resulted in seven fatalities, six in Winterset and one in Chariton, making it the deadliest tornado outbreak in Iowa since 2008. At 15 tornadoes, this is also one of the earliest outbreaks of this magnitude to occur so early in the season.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.6104, -93.3486)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1007103. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.