Home / Iowa / Union

EF1 tornado in Union County, Iowa

Tornado April 17, 2025 · Union County, Iowa

EF1

Rating

4.3 mi

Path length

50 yd

Path width

$46K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

The tornado developed in southwest Union county and tracked through rural portions of the county. Four properties reported damage, ranging from damage to outbuildings to shingle damage to a home.

The wider storm

Warm air advection increased across the area through the day with a warm front draped across northern Iowa by the afternoon. Meanwhile a cold front was approaching Iowa from the northwest. Storms developed in the early evening in far southwest Iowa, moving across southern Iowa through late evening and overnight. Initial storms were surface based with CAPE exceeding 2000 J/kg and sweeping low level curvature in hodographs. Rotating updrafts supported hail growth with initial surface based storms resulting in a tornado in Union County. Storms became elevated overnight but remained strong, fueled by a strong 70+ knot low level jet. As storms in southern Iowa tapered off overnight additional storms developed along the boundary there. These storms became quite strong, producing golf ball to baseball sized hail from around 2 AM and lasting until after 5 AM.

Began near Kent (40.9145, -94.4485).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1252142. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.