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EF3 tornado in Buchanan County, Iowa

Tornado May 25, 2008 · Buchanan County, Iowa

EF3
Rating
32.0 mi
Whole path
1,232 yd
Path width
3
Injuries
$1.1M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Buchanan County → Delaware County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 1,232 yards (0.70 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A tornado developed just east of the county lines southwest of Fairbank and moved east. The tornado cross the southern part of Hazelton and continued east into Delaware County. Over ten homes, about 50 non-anchored mobile homes at a dealership, and numerous outbuildings were destroyed. Several other homes sustained structural damage. Numerous trees and utility poles were also blown down. An SUV was flipped over in Hazelton injuring the driver and some passengers.

The wider storm

Heavy rain-producing showers and thunderstorms moved across much of eastern Iowa and northwest and west central Illinois from the evening of May 25th to the early morning of May 26th. Some of the stronger storms also produced tornadoes, damaging winds, and large hail. Buchanan, Delaware, and Dubuque counties in Iowa were hardest hit with the heavy rains, where rainfall totals of 3 to 8 inches fell resulting in flash flooding.

Began near Fairbank (42.6031, -92.0183).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

4 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 106044. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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