EF1 Tornado — Monona, Iowa

2024-04-26 · near Soldier, Monona, Iowa

Event narrative

A tornado developed near the intersection of 260th and 270th Streets. It produced damage to outbuildings at a farmstead near this intersection and tossed some fiberglass boats. The tornado moved across agricultural fields generally northeast paralleling State Highway 183 to the west. It produced damage to trees along Redwood Avenue and snapped a power pole at the intersection of State Highway 37 and Redwood Avenue. The tornado moved just west of the community of Soldier, producing no discernable damage to any homes or businesses on the west side of town. Radar signatures indicate the tornado continued to move northeast across agricultural lands, moving north of 245th Street, damaging trees and outbuildings, before dissipating just east of Spruce Avenue. Peak winds in this tornado were estimated at 98 miles per hour. The maximum width was measured at 250 yards, with the average width estimated at 100 yards.

Wider weather episode

On the morning of April 26th, a potent negatively-tilted shortwave trough ejected out into the central Plains. Upper air analysis shows a jet streak on the downstream side of this trough with substantial divergence aloft over Nebraska. At the surface, morning cloud cover and drizzle across much of eastern Nebraska and western Iowa quickly gave way to partly cloud skies as a warm front moved north through the area, just after noon. At the same time, thunderstorms initiated along a pacific front/dryline in south-central Nebraska. One supercell produced several tornadoes from south-central Nebraska into Boone County, resulting in an EF-2 tornado just west of Cedar Rapids. A second round of supercells initiated in Jefferson and Saline counties. These long-track supercells produced the worst tornado outbreak the Omaha WFO has seen in 10 years. 5 EF-3 tornadoes were surveyed, with several of these tornadoes just shy of an EF-4 rating. One of these EF-3 tornadoes impacted the northeast side of Lincoln, Nebraska where 70 people were reported trapped in a manufacturing plant that collapsed as the tornado passed. Another long-track EF-3 tornado hit portions of Elkhorn, Bennington and Blair, Nebraska. Eppley Airfield was hit by the third EF-3 tornado of the day, doing damage to aircraft hangars on the southeast side of the airport before hitting homes in far western Pottawattamie County. The last two EF-3 tornadoes of the day both impacted portions of Pottawattamie County. While one remained primarily in rural areas in the central part of the county, the final EF-3 of the day hit the town of Minden, Iowa head-on, resulting in 1 fatality and 3 injuries. This was the only fatality of the entire event. This tornado continued into Shelby County, narrowly missing the towns of Tenant and Harlan. A total of 24 tornadoes were confirmed across both Nebraska and Iowa portions of the Omaha CWA. The strongest tornado was the EF-3 that impacted Elkhorn and Blair, with peak estimated wind speeds at 165 miles per hour.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.9700, -95.8100)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1167513. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.