Tornadoes · United States · Iowa · 1962

F2 tornado, Marion County, Iowa, May 28, 1962

This F2 tornado ran 11.7 miles across Marion County on May 28, 1962, touching down at 10:00 PM GMT-5 and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 to $500,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F2
Date
May 28, 1962
Touchdown
10:00 PM GMT-5 (03:00 UTC)
Path length
11.7 miles (18.8 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Marion County
Touchdown point
41.170, -93.200
Lift-off point
41.300, -93.050
Record number
289

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 00:00Z

3.0 hours before the tornado, 271 km from the path. May 29, 1962.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 1962-05-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -11737, lifted condensation level 3551 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 1962-05-29The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -62 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 19 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-11737 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3551 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-62 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-32 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 12:00Z

9.0 hours after it, 271 km from the path. May 29, 1962.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 1962-05-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -55943, lifted condensation level 3566 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 1962-05-29The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 29 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 66 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-55943 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3566 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
66 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
29 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
35 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Des Moines (DSM), 55 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
01:00 UTC676440° 11 kt1004.4TSRA
02:00 UTC6461320° 5 kt1005.1-TSRA
03:00 UTC6361250° 8 kt1006.8TSRA
04:00 UTC6261220° 3 kt1005.1

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1962 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 28, 1962

24 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 2810:30 AM GMT-7F0Natrona, WY0.110
May 281:00 PM GMT-7F1Otero, CO0.110$50 to $500
May 281:27 PM GMT-7F0Campbell, WY0.110
May 284:00 PM GMT-5F2Gillespie, TX5.1100
May 284:00 PM GMT-5F1Gillespie, TX4.327
May 284:30 PM GMT-5F1Cheyenne, KS0.510$500 to $5,000
May 284:30 PM GMT-5F1Rawlins, KS1.010$500 to $5,000
May 284:45 PM GMT-5F2Alfalfa, OK0.110
May 285:00 PM GMT-5F2Lyon, KS3.6300$50,000 to $500,000
May 285:30 PM GMT-5F1Cheyenne, KS0.110
May 285:30 PM GMT-5F1Hitchcock, NE0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 285:30 PM GMT-5F2Barton, KS1.510$500 to $5,000
May 285:40 PM GMT-5F2Osage, KS0.9200$50,000 to $500,000
May 286:12 PM GMT-5F0Henry, IL0.110
May 286:20 PM GMT-5F1Pottawatomie, OK0.110under $50
May 286:20 PM GMT-5F1Jefferson, KS0.110$500,000 to $5 million
May 287:10 PM GMT-5F2Henry, IL0.110
May 287:30 PM GMT-5F0Peoria, IL0.110
May 288:00 PM GMT-5F1Clay, MO2.350$5,000 to $50,000
May 288:45 PM GMT-5F2Henry, IL0.110$50,000 to $500,000
May 2810:00 PM GMT-5F2Marshall, IA0.12005$50,000 to $500,000
May 2810:40 PM GMT-5F0Pottawatomie, OK0.110
May 2812:00 AM GMT-5F0Kerr, TX0.110
May 2812:50 AM GMT-5F2Latimer, OK9.3200$5,000 to $50,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.