EF3 Tornado — Pottawattamie, Iowa
2024-04-26 · near Mc Clelland, Pottawattamie, Iowa
Event narrative
A tornado developed approximately 3 miles east of McClelland, and developed prior to the dissipation of the EF-3 tornado that tracked near Treynor. This was confirmed by photo and video evidence of storm spotters. This tornado moved toward the north-northeast, damaging mainly trees, outbuildings and barns as it tracked towards Sumac Road and 330th Street. At this point, according to radar and storm damage indicators, the tornado rapidly intensified. An outbuilding was totally destroyed near Sycamore Road, and the tornado caused extensive tree damage east of 330th Road, south of Minden. The tornado intensified further, and widened to approximately 1200 yards as it impacted the town of Minden. Video and spotter reports indicate that there were multiple vortices within the tornado near Minden and points northeast, and there was evidence of narrow zones of the most intense damage which lines up very well with the multiple vortex tornado concept. In fact, there were damage indicators of EF-1 damage and high-end EF-3 damage within only 100 yards of each other. The most intense damage was on the far east side of Minden. Numerous homes were uninhabitable and several homes were completely destroyed. There were also several sizeable metal buildings southeast of Main Street that were completely destroyed. The construction of these metal structures and the homes that were most impacted, in conjunction with the tree damage and damage to cars with few if any cars being lofted and thrown indicated that this was a very strong EF-3 tornado, near the top of the damage range for an EF-3. The damage to the town of Minden was extensive, with three injuries. A fourth person succumbed to their injuries after the event, resulting in the only direct fatality of this tornado outbreak in the OAX area. The tornado continued northeast of Minden where it produced EF-3 damage at two homes along 345th Street. One of the homes was somewhat intact but was removed from its foundation and slid approximately 10 yards to the northeast. The other home had only small interior rooms remaining. It is worth noting that these two homes were 700 yards apart along the north-south street. EF-2 damage occurred along Whippoorwill Road. The tornado crossed Interstate 80 near 355th Street, flipping a semi, and produced damage of a mile wide along York Road just north of Interstate 80. This tornado continued briefly into Harrison County and then into Shelby County. EF-1 damage was noted in Harrison County and EF-3 damage was found in Shelby County 2 miles west of Harlan, Iowa. Peak estimated winds in Pottawattamie County from this tornado were estimated at 160 miles per hour. Maximum width was estimated at 1900 yards, with an average width of 850 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 → (41.3200, -95.6200)
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1167525. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.