TornadoLookup

Home / Iowa / Howard

EF0 tornado in Howard County, Iowa

Tornado July 19, 2017 · Howard County, Iowa

EF0
Rating
0.7 mi
Path length
20 yd
Path width
$12K
Damage as recorded
$5K
Crop damage
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 20 yards (0.01 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

An EF-0 tornado touched down north of Elma and traveled a short distance to the northeast. The tornado pulled a corner of a pole shed out of the ground and drone footage showed a narrow path through a corn field.

The wider storm

A line of severe thunderstorms moved across northeast Iowa during the late afternoon of July 19th. These storms produced two tornadoes. The first, an EF-0, touched down north of Elma (Howard County) and damaged some crops. The second tornado, an EF-1, touched down west of McGregor (Clayton County) and then moved east through McGregor before dissipating over the Mississippi River. The tornado did extensive damage to the downtown area where two buildings were completely destroyed and numerous others were damaged. One person was killed in an accident cleaning up debris from the tornado when a tractor rolled and pinned the person beneath it. The storms produced a path of damaging winds from Nora Springs (Floyd County) and Mitchell (Osage County) east to Waukon (Allamakee County). Within this path, winds were estimated to range from 65 to 80 mph with numerous trees and power lines blown down. Southeast of Waukon, a barn was blown down trapping a farmer in the debris. The Governor of Iowa declared a disaster proclamation for Allamakee, Chickasaw, Clayton, Fayette, Floyd and Winneshiek Counties. The President of the United States issued a disaster declaration for Allamakee, Chickasaw, Fayette and Mitchell Counties.

Began near Maple Leaf (43.3208, -92.4509).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF1 Clayton County 1 dead

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 708991. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.