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EF1 tornado in Iowa County, Iowa

Tornado April 27, 2014 · Iowa County, Iowa

EF1

Rating

45.7 mi

Whole path

200 yd

Path width

Deaths

Injuries

$25K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Wapello County → Keokuk County → Iowa County → Johnson County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

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

NWS storm survey teams determined that a tornado developed in far northern Wapello County, crossed Keokuk County and southeastern Iowa County, and ended in rural southwest Johnson County.

This entry is for the portion of the tornado that affected Iowa County. This long track tornado initially started east of Highland Center and traveled at about 60 mph to the northeast. After crossing Keokuk County, the tornado moved into Iowa County near the junction of the Iowa, Keokuk, and Washington County lines at around 352 pm CDT (252 pm CST). It left a damage path about 10 miles long in rural areas that included damage to outbuildings and trees.

The tornado exited Iowa County at about 402 pm CDT (302 pm CST) and moved into Johnson County a few miles south of I-80.

The wider storm

A powerful storm system lifted into the central Plains on the afternoon of April 27, 2014 and brought several rounds of showers and thunderstorms to eastern Iowa. Some of these thunderstorms were severe and produced damaging winds and an isolated hail report. There was one confirmed tornado during the event that moved across Keokuk, Iowa and Johnson Counties with two fatalities. In addition to the damaging winds rainfall totals ranged from a half an inch to around 1 inch in a little under an hour.

Began near Holbrook (41.5107, -91.9561).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF0 Linn County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 504274. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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