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EF1 tornado in Buena Vista County, Iowa

Tornado October 4, 2013 · Buena Vista County, Iowa

EF1

Rating

5.5 mi

Path length

200 yd

Path width

$1.2M

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 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 destroyed a garage and damaged several other buildings and farm equipment on a farm, and damaged trees and power lines. The tornado also damaged a metal building system. The tornado also severely damaged the roof and air conditioning units at a school near Alta, and destroyed bleachers at the school.

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 Hanover (42.6032, -95.3649).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF4 Woodbury County EF2 Woodbury County EF1 Union County EF1 Plymouth 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 476160. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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