F1 tornado in Cedar County, Iowa

Tornado May 18, 1997 · Cedar County, Iowa

Rating

3.0 mi

Path length

50 yd

Path width

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F1 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F1 meant moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken; the scale paired it with winds of 73–112 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

What the National Weather Service wrote

Tornado passed across open country along highway 30.

The wider storm

A very costly hailstorm passed across northeast Iowa into extreme northwestern Illinois, bringing several waves of hail greater than 1.5 inches. While there were a few reports of tornadoes; by far the most significant damage was done by large hail. In particular the hailstorm which hit Iowa City did around 40 million dollars of damage in just fifteen minutes.

Began near Mechanicsville (41.9000, -91.3700).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

F1 Linn County F0 Scott County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5602729. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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