Tornadoes and Damaging Winds in Iowa, April 5, 1999

An intense low pressure system moved out of the Rockies and intensified over Kansas before lifting northeast into western Iowa during the evening of the 5th. The system was very similar to the tornado outbreak of 27 May 1995 with the exception that this system did not have as much deep moisture to work with. A tropospheric fold was noted in the upper air analysis on the morning of the 5th over Oklahoma. This helped intensify the system during the day. As the upper low lifted northeast, it took on a negative tilt. A strong mid level jet streak formed with wind speeds of 100 knots observed at 500 mb on the Lathrop, MO wind profiler. Earlier in the day a round of non severe convection moved across Iowa. Late in the afternoon a line of thunderstorms fired up over southeast Nebraska into northwest Missouri. The storms raced north at speeds of up to 80 knots at times. This event was a low topped convection event. The first tornado reports came during the early afternoon hours over southeast Nebraska. By mid afternoon the line pushed into southwest Iowa. Several small spin up tornadoes were reported. The strongest tornado occurred in Taylor County. It touched down briefly twice southwest of Bedford along Highway 148. This tornado had an intermittent track for about 3 miles. Once the tornado weakened, the storms produced high winds farther to the northeast. Four miles north of Bedford, damage was reported on a farmstead there. The storms continued to move north and brought high winds to Prescott, in Adams County. A bit later, another cell spawned a brief tornado touchdown south of Lenox, also in Taylor County. Damage estimates from Taylor County showed in excess of $10,000 damage occurred on 6 farmsteads. Most of the damage was done to outbuildings, however a few barns were damaged as well. About an hour later the same line of storms was moving through Warren County. Gusty winds were reported with it as well as a brief tornado touchdown west of New Virginia. Some minor wind damage occurred west of Indianola, in Warren County, before the storms weakened with the loss of daytime heating.