EF1 Tornado — Clayton, Iowa

2017-07-19 · near Giard, Clayton, Iowa

Event narrative

An EF-1 tornado touched down about 5 miles west of McGregor and then moved through McGregor before dissipating just east of town over the Mississippi River. The most damage occurred in McGregor with two buildings downtown completely destroyed while numerous others were damaged. Two people sustained minor injuries due to flying glass. Hundreds of trees across town were snapped off. West of McGregor, the tornado damaged a storage shed, ripped back part of a metal roof from an outbuilding and damaged numerous trees. One person was killed in an accident cleaning up debris when a tractor rolled over pinning the person underneath it.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (43.0096, -91.2827)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 709960. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.