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EF1 tornado in Buchanan County, Iowa

Tornado May 25, 2008 · Buchanan County, Iowa

EF1
Rating
3.5 mi
Path length
100 yd
Path width
$50K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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 brief tornado enhanced by the rear-flank downdraft (RFD) winds moved east about 3.5 miles and lifted. Location and time estimated. Some outbuildings and trees along the path were damaged.

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 Lamont (42.5300, -91.6600).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF3 Buchanan CountyEF1 Delaware CountyEF1 Iowa CountyEF0 Johnson County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 106049. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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