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EF0 tornado in Pocahontas County, Iowa

Tornado April 16, 2024 · Pocahontas County, Iowa

EF0
Rating
0.6 mi
Path length
40 yd
Path width
$10K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 40 yards (0.02 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A storm chaser captured video of this brief tornado as it moved just east of Rolfe. The tornado produced some minor damage to a couple of farmsteads on the east side of Rolfe along with some tree damage.

The wider storm

A strong low pressure brought multiple rounds of strong to severe thunderstorms to portions of central Iowa on Tuesday, April 16th, 2024. Elevated thunderstorms developed overnight and lingered into the morning across the area, remaining sub severe. This was followed by a second line of storms that lifted into the area by late morning. This line produced a few tornadoes in southwest to central Iowa. This was then followed by a third round of thunderstorms, more discrete in storm mode, that produced a few more tornadoes in northwest portions of Iowa. At least 8 short-lived tornadoes touched down, some causing damage in portions of central Iowa from late morning through the afternoon. A few of the severe thunderstorms also produced hail of 1 to 2 inches in diameter and wind gusts of 50-60 mph. Environmental winds behind the dry line were quite strong as well, occasionally gusting in excess of 50-55 mph.

Began near Rolfe (42.8098, -94.5189).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

8 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1169952. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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