EF0 tornado in Ida County, Iowa

A brief tornado touched down approximately 3 miles west of Ida Grove and moved northeast for about a half mile before lifting. The tornado impacted a farmstead along German Ave between Hillside Way and Highway 175, uprooting one tree and downing several other large limbs. The tornado was rated EF0 with an estimated peak wind of 75 mph and an estimated average width of 30 yards.

An approaching mid-level disturbance broke a weak cap and allowed storms to erupt during the afternoon along a slow moving frontal boundary. These storms rapidly organized into short bowing segments and then became highly linear across northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota during the evening. Initial supercell storms produced large hail with as much as 2000-3000 J/kg MLCAPE, but DCAPE of around 750-1000 J/kg allowed for the development of organized cold pools and an increasing wind threat. Several brief and highly visible tornadic spin-ups developed along the line of storms by late afternoon and evening across far eastern South Dakota, northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota.

In addition, repeated thunderstorms brought as much as 2-4 inches of rain in a short period of time to portions of Plymouth and southern Sioux County in northwest Iowa. This same area had also received locally heavy rainfall during the previous days, resulting in spotty flooding of already saturated locations.