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EF1 tornado in Buena Vista County, Iowa

Tornado April 9, 2011 · Buena Vista County, Iowa

EF1

Rating

32.1 mi

Whole path

150 yd

Path width

$13.5M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Sac County → Sac County → Buena Vista County → Buena Vista County → Buena Vista County → Pocahontas County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 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

A tornado caused damage to outbuildings and other farm structures.

The wider storm

Thunderstorms produced widespread severe weather in northwest Iowa during the evening of April 9th, beginning at the end of the afternoon. Most of the reports at the start of the event were large hail, but damaging winds and tornadoes then developed, with significant damage reported.

Began near Newell (42.5751, -94.9438).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF2 Ida County EF1 Ida County EF1 Cherokee County EF0 Buena Vista County EF0 Buena Vista County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 302257. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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