EF0 tornado in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa

Tornado was reported by a trained spotter northeast of Rockwell. Tornado path was determined using high resolution satellite imagery. The tornado developed and moved to the east, mostly across open agricultural fields. It did blow down a grain bin on a farmstead and with some minor tree damage as well. The tornado then began to move southeast continuing to remain in open cropland. One final farmstead was impacted with some tree damage before the tornado lifted.

A surface low pressure system was centered over Kansas and Nebraska with attendant warm front draped across north central Iowa. This was bisected by an outflow boundary from morning convection across western Iowa. As morning activity exited the are the atmosphere quickly recovered steep low and mid level lapse rates exceeded 8 C/km with 0-6 km shear over 40 knots. Near the remnant outflow boundary 0-1 km SRH exceeded 150 m2/s2. Storms developed along this boundary and moved east along the warm front, spawning a number of tornadoes across the state. In fact, this is in the top 5 for tornadoes occurring in a single day for the state of Iowa since reliable records began in the 1980s. By evening convection congealed into an MCS, bringing heavy rain to portions of the state. A line of training storms set up north of the Des Moines metro, resulting in localized flash flooding.