EF2 Tornado — Polk, Iowa

2024-04-26 · near Ft Des Moines, Polk, Iowa

Event narrative

This tornado developed within the east side of the Des Moines Metro area just northwest of Easter Lake. Initial damage reports include damage to trees and fences and then eventually roof damage as the tornado progressed to the northeast. The tornado passed just to the southeast of James Cownie Soccer Complex and crossed the Des Moines River near the Des Moines Wastewater Treatment Plant. The tornado then passed into Pleasant Hill with numerous reports of EF2 damage to several houses on the south side of town with widespread roof and wall damage. The tornado weakened to the northeast and eventually dissipated on the far south side of Altoona. This tornado produced one non-life threatening injury.

Wider weather episode

Multiple rounds of storms moved across the area on April 26th. The first round was fueled by broad thermal lift and passed across Iowa through the morning with a few of these storms producing small hail but all remained sub severe. The area dried out and cleared out behind this round, allowing for a few hours of destabilization. By afternoon the warm sector was sufficiently unstable between the warm front and a dryline. Robust convection developed along that dryline in the afternoon in western Nebraska, moving into Iowa in the early evening. With sufficient instability, the increasing low level jet, and SRH exceeding 300 m2/s2, large hail and tornadoes occurred with storms across western to central Iowa. In all, 28 tornadoes occurred in Iowa with 18 within the NWS Des Moines area.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.5486, -93.5802)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1170104. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.