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EF2 tornado in Woodbury County, Iowa

Tornado October 4, 2013 · Woodbury County, Iowa

EF2
Rating
26.6 mi
Whole path
264 yd
Path width
2
Injuries
$400K
Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 264 yards (0.15 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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 Woodbury County from Monona County Iowa, severely damaged at least two houses, collapsing two walls and blowing the roof off one of the houses. The tornado also destroyed or damaged numerous farm outbuildings and storage buildings, including several structures at a hog farm, and a large metal storage building. The tornado also destroyed open air buildings at a dairy farm. The tornado blew down power lines and poles, and caused considerable tree damage, including trees snapped off at their trunks. Corn crops were flattened in a few areas.

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 Sloan (42.2148, -96.2827).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF4 Woodbury CountyEF1 Union CountyEF1 Plymouth CountyEF1 Buena Vista CountyEF1 Woodbury CountyEF0 Plymouth CountyEF0 Cherokee CountyEF0 Cherokee CountyEF0 Cherokee CountyEF0 Clay County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 476180. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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