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EF1 tornado in Cherokee County, Iowa

Tornado October 4, 2013 · Cherokee County, Iowa

EF1

Rating

24.7 mi

Whole path

1,300 yd

Path width

$2.0M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Woodbury County → Cherokee County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 1,300 yards (0.74 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, crossing into Chrerokee County from Woodbury County, damaged power poles, power lines, and trees.

The wider storm

Thunderstorms produced eleven tornadoes, several of them causing damage, which tracked wholly or partly in northwest Iowa during the afternoon and early evening of October 4th. There were also two reports of large hail and one report of non tornadic damaging thunderstorm winds.

Began near Washta (42.5609, -95.7905).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF2 Woodbury County EF1 Union County EF1 Plymouth County EF1 Buena Vista County EF1 Woodbury County EF0 Plymouth County EF0 Cherokee County EF0 Cherokee County EF0 Cherokee County EF0 Clay County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 476118. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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