EF0 tornado in Howard County, Iowa

This was the fourth tornado of the night across Howard County. This EF0 tornado formed northeast of Schley and moved northeast before dissipating west of Cresco. This tornado caused damage to one farm where a house was effectively destroyed by large trees blown down on it. At another farm, the home sustained roof damage from a large tree downed on it along with broken windows and two metal outbuildings were destroyed with a third damaged.

An intense storm system moved across the Upper Midwest on December 15th and produced a rare severe weather outbreak across northeast Iowa. Eight tornadoes occurred across parts of Floyd, Chickasaw and Howard Counties. Four of these tornadoes were rated EF1 with one moving through Rudd (Floyd County) where the roof was removed from the library and several homes and a church were heavily damaged. The other tornadoes largely moved through rural areas damaging trees, power lines and farm buildings. In addition to the tornadoes, damaging winds occurred that blew over a semi in Floyd (Floyd County) and damaged numerous homes across the region. The Governor of Iowa declared a state of disaster emergency for Allamakee, Chickasaw, Fayette, Floyd, Howard, Mitchell and Winneshiek Counties. A federal disaster was declared for Floyd, Howard and Mitchell Counties.