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EF2 tornado in Jackson County, Iowa

Tornado July 11, 2025 · Jackson County, Iowa

EF2
Rating
2.9 mi
Path length
250 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 250 yards (0.14 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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

Evidence of a multiple vortex tornado EF-2 tornado occurred across northern Jackson County. The tornado started north of La Motte where it damaged the roof of an agriculture industry building. As it tracked east the tornado did damage to trees until halfway through its 2.6 mile path where the most intense damage was found. A large farm building lost it's entire roof, along with half of it's walls. Roof sheet metal was found north, south and east of the structure. Insulation from the roof was found on the north, south and east side of the remaining walls. A metal power pole was bent along with a few other wooden poles snap. All this damage supported an EF-2 tornado. As the tornado moved east it destroyed two more farm buildings, numerous trees and the roof of a house.

The wider storm

On July 11th, a line of severe thunderstorms moved across eastern Iowa and produced damaging straight-line winds, tornadoes and heavy rain. Rainfall totals of 2 to 4 inches fell in a few hours across the Quad Cities, on top of heavy rain from the previous night and caused major flash flooding in Davenport. A Considerable Flash Flood warning was issued at 5:26 PM followed by a Flash Flood Emergency at 6:16 PM.

Began near La Motte (42.3000, -90.6200).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1281948. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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