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EF1 tornado in Benton County, Iowa

Tornado July 17, 2016 · Benton County, Iowa

EF1

Rating

4.0 mi

Whole path

75 yd

Path width

Injuries

$275K

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 75 yards (0.04 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 touched down southeast of Norway and tracked southeast to Walford and then into Linn County. It damaged 2 farmsteads before reaching Walford. In Walford, it damaged the roofs of numerous homes.

The wider storm

A nearly stationary frontal boundary spawned a line of thunderstorms that produced numerous reports of damaging winds and isolated tornadoes.

Began near Norway (41.8912, -91.8966).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF2 Benton County EF1 Jackson County EF1 Scott County EF0 Scott County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 654434. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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