Tornado in Polk County, Iowa

This was the 2nd tornado of three which occurred between the Des Moines metro and Ames on this day. This particular tornado produced a TDS on the KDMX WSR-88D radar from far northern Polk into Boone county. No ground damage was observed by the ground survey, hence the EFU rating.

Showers and thunderstorms developed along a cold front in the early morning hours, with quarter sized hail and a few stronger winds gusts reported in central Iowa around sunrise. This pushed east of the area by mid morning and temperatures warmed. This allowed for deep mixing and non-thunderstorm associated wind gusts of 50 to over 60 mph occurred across the area through the afternoon. In the evening a secondary front passed across the state, with daytime heating allowing for more robust convection to develop. The bowing, linear storm system primarily produced a swath of wind gusts and damage, however a few smaller hail reports were made.