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EF0 tornado in Hardin County, Iowa

Tornado June 30, 2014 · Hardin County, Iowa

EF0
Rating
6.5 mi
Whole path
140 yd
Path width
$52K
Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 140 yards (0.08 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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

This was a multiple segment tornado with two segment including portions of Marshall and Hardin counties. This is the second and final segment in Hardin county. After crossing into Hardin county, the narrowing tornado left a highly convergent tree damage pattern across 335th St. The path washed out in a pasture NE of this point just west of the Iowa River.

The wider storm

A very dynamic pattern was in place over the state with a closed low located over southern Canada into the north central U.S. A very strong jet of 85 to 100 kts as present at 250 mb. CAPE by early morning was already 3000 to 4000 J/kg with downdraft CAPE of 1000 to 1400 J/kg. CAPE in the -10 to -30 C layer of the atmosphere was between 1000 and 1400 J/kg. The freezing level was around 14,000 feet with precipitable water values near 2 inches. The LCL remained around 750 meters with 75 J/kg of CAPE in the 0-3 km layer. There was strong shear present, with 60-80 kts of effective shear. A cold front moved into Iowa during the day and moved across the state. This event was similar to the event of 29 June 1998. Thunderstorms formed over northeast Nebraska by sunrise and continued to propagate east into Iowa. The storms intensified as they moved across the state, into a forward moving MCS. As it strengthened into a Derecho, winds of 70 to 80 MPH were reported over a large swath of the state. All modes of severe weather occurred. Widespread wind damage was reported to trees, power lines, and structures from the high winds. In addition, very large hail occurred. Some of the larger hail included three to four inch diameter hail in Calhoun County near Rockwell City, and three and one half inch diameter hail in Warren County at Sandyville. Several tornadoes were confirmed. Very heavy rainfall occurred with the storms. The rain lead to flooding and flash flooding in many areas of northern and central Iowa. By the end of the month, a presidential disaster declaration had been made for the follow 9 Iowa counties: Adams, Clarke, Decatur, Mills, Montgomery, Pottawattamie, Ringgold, Taylor and Wayne. Governor Branstad also requested a disaster declaration for the following 26 Iowa Counties: Allamakee, Buchanan, Buena Vista, Butler, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Clay, Dickinson, Emmet, Fayette, Franklin, Hancock, Humboldt, Ida, Kossuth, Lyon, Osceola, Palo Alto, Plymouth, Pocahontas, Sac, Sioux, Winnebago, Winneshiek, Woodbury, and Wright. The Presidential declaration was granted on 24 July 2014.

Began near Union (42.2091, -93.0535).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 526808. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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