EF3 Tornado — Pottawattamie, Iowa

2024-04-26 · near Carter Lake, Pottawattamie, Iowa

Event narrative

This is a continuation of the Douglas County segment of this EF-3 tornado. This is also the second time the tornado moved through portions of western Pottawattamie County. At the start of this segment, the tornado moved northeast across the Missouri River and crossed Interstate 29 near mile marker 58. It widened to about one-quarter mile, damaging numerous homes and businesses between the interstate and Little Kiln Road. The most intense damage was sustained to a residence along Little Kiln Road due to the collapse of most of the exterior and interior walls except for a few interior rooms. A storm damage survey the following day found this to be EF-3 damage, with peak winds estimated at 152 miles per hour. This damage point was when the tornado was at its strongest. The tornado then continued northeast, moving across Old Lincoln Highway about 1.5 miles south of Crescent. EF-2 damage to several homes occurred due to the major loss of the roof and exterior walls. A vehicle detail shop was also destroyed in this area. The tornado then moved across mainly woodland areas before impacting a home and farm outbuildings near the intersection of Badger and Jefferson Avenues, where EF-2 damage was sustained to the home due to major roof damage. After this, the tornado moved across agricultural and woodland areas between 195th Street and Cougar Avenue, producing EF-1 damage to several manufactured homes and farm outbuildings. Further to the northeast, the tornado produced EF-0 damage to farm outbuildings by removing large portions of their roofs and snapping large tree limbs. This tornado weakened near the intersection of 210th Street and Teakwood Road, producing intermittent damage to tree limbs. It crossed Interstate 880 about 7 miles west of the I-29 and I-880 interchange, or about 7 miles southeast of Missouri Valley. Shortly after crossing Interstate 880, the tornado briefly moved into far southern Harrison County where it dissipated half a mile north of the county line just to the east of Overton Avenue. The peak width of the tornado during this segment of its track was measured at 550 yards, with an average width estimated at 300 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 → (41.3110, -95.8750)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1167517. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.