EF3 Tornado — Pottawattamie, Iowa

2024-04-26 · near Dumfries, Pottawattamie, Iowa

Event narrative

A tornado damage path began near Aspen Road, just west of 240th Street. The tornado tracked toward the north-northeast, snapping trees and electrical poles as it went. A home was impacted along Chestnut Road with substantial roof damage. Two additional homes were directly impacted when the tornado crossed Highway 92. One of these sustained major roof damage while the other home had most external walls collapse while interior walls remained standing. Numerous trees were snapped and a large shed was completely destroyed at this location while a large steel horse trailer was thrown more than a quarter mile. The tornado continued to Cottonwood Road where it damaged a home and an outbuilding. The most significant damage along the track occurred at Dogwood Road where a home was completely destroyed, and only the basement remained. Tree damage here was substantial as well with numerous snapped trunks. Residents of this home survived by seeking shelter in the basement bathroom, which was one of the few locations in the home not directly impacted by major flying debris. The tornado crossed Elmtree Road and Highway 6, and appears to have been at its widest near Highway 6 where it was approximately 800 yards wide. Another home was damaged near 270th and Hickory Road. The tornado continued northeast, damaging electrical poles, trees, and outbuildings all the way to where it ended near 295th and Juniper Road. The ending location is based on photo evidence of spotters located southeast of the storm. Peak winds in this tornado were estimated at 145 miles per hour. This tornado had a max width of 900 yards with an estimated average width of 500 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 → (41.1800, -95.7300)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1167521. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.