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Tornado in Woodbury County, Iowa

Tornado May 22, 2026 · Woodbury County, Iowa

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Not rated

0.6 mi

Path length

30 yd

Path width

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 30 yards (0.02 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

Not rated. NOAA lists no rating for this tornado. Ratings come from surveying damage, and the National Weather Service now records “EFU” (unknown) when a tornado hit nothing a survey team could rate.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A very brief tornado touchdown was documented by two independent photos. The tornado spun up briefly in open areas between the Little Sioux River and Morgan Trail to the north of Oto. After traveling north for less than a minute, the tornado lifted just prior to crossing Morgan Trail. The average path width was estimated at 30 yards.

The wider storm

As a strong wave sheared northward through the Dakotas, the right entrance region of an upper level jet interacted with a slow moving surface boundary to increase late day backing of wind fields and convergence. While overall thermodynamic parameters were lacking, favorable overlap of near-surface vorticity and acceleration of near-surface parcels resulted in low-level rotating storms. One storm anchored near the boundary produced a brief tornado.

Began near Oto (42.3134, -95.8822).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1343992. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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