Tornadoes · United States · Iowa · 1964

F2 tornado, Appanoose and Davis counties, Iowa, June 14, 1964

This F2 tornado ran 11.9 miles across Appanoose and Davis counties on June 14, 1964, touching down at 3:30 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
June 14, 1964
Touchdown
3:30 PM GMT-5 (20:30 UTC)
Path length
11.9 miles (19.1 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
Counties
Appanoose and Davis counties
Touchdown point
40.670, -92.670
Lift-off point
40.730, -92.450
Record number
411

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.

Columbia Regiona, MO (KCOU), 12:00Z

8.5 hours before the tornado, 211 km from the path. June 14, 1964.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Columbia Regiona, MO at 12:00Z on 1964-06-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 530 joules per kilogram, CIN -21, lifted condensation level 735 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Columbia Regiona, MO at 12:00Z on 1964-06-14The 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 23 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 knots.193958Sfc1 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
530 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-21 J/kg
Surface CAPE
579 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
735 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
23 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
48 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

Columbia Regiona, MO (KCOU), 00:00Z

3.5 hours after it, 211 km from the path. June 15, 1964.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Columbia Regiona, MO at 00:00Z on 1964-06-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 380 joules per kilogram, CIN -135, lifted condensation level 1207 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Columbia Regiona, MO at 00:00Z on 1964-06-15The 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 139 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
380 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-135 J/kg
Surface CAPE
306 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1207 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
139 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
174 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1964 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 14, 1964

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 142:35 AM GMT-5F0Hall, NE0.110
June 145:15 PM GMT-5F1Osage, OK0.350$5,000 to $50,000
June 146:00 PM GMT-5F0Greeley, NE0.110

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.