EF0 Tornado — Harrison, Iowa

2024-04-26 · near Beebeetown, Harrison, Iowa

Event narrative

This is the final segment for the EF-3 tornado that impacted Eppley Airfield and portions of western Pottawattamie County. The tornado crossed into far southern Harrison County less than a quarter mile from the York Road and Overton Avenue intersection. For the short time the tornado was in the county, it produced EF-0 damage to trees along a half-mile stretch of Overton Avenue. The tornado dissipated half a mile north of the county line just to the east of Overton Avenue. The peak width of the tornado in this segment of its track was measured at 75 yards with an average width estimated at 30 yards. Maximum estimated winds while this tornado was in Harrison County were 75 miles per hour.

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 → (41.5060, -95.7570)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1167518. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.