Tornadoes · United States · Iowa · 1967

F2 tornado, Lee County, Iowa, January 24, 1967

This F2 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Lee County on January 24, 1967, touching down at 4:20 PM GMT-6 and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 4, 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
January 24, 1967
Touchdown
4:20 PM GMT-6 (22:20 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
4
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Lee County
Touchdown point
40.700, -91.230
Lift-off point
40.750, -91.200
Record number
14

What the Weather Service recorded

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

AgeSexWhereKind
Direct

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

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.

Peoria Regional, IL (KPIA), 12:00Z

10.3 hours before the tornado, 136 km from the path. January 24, 1967.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 12:00Z on 1967-01-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 11 joules per kilogram, CIN -115, lifted condensation level 779 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, Peoria Regional, IL at 12:00Z on 1967-01-24The 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 65 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
11 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-115 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
779 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
65 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
76 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Peoria Regional, IL (KPIA), 00:00Z

1.7 hours after it, 136 km from the path. January 25, 1967.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 00:00Z on 1967-01-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 393 joules per kilogram, CIN -59, lifted condensation level 932 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, Peoria Regional, IL at 00:00Z on 1967-01-25The 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 509 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
393 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-59 J/kg
Surface CAPE
406 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
932 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
509 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
624 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.5
Supercell composite
6.6
0-3 km lapse rate
6.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Burlington (BRL), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:00 UTC6456170° 18 kt
22:00 UTC6455170° 20 kt
23:00 UTC220° 15 kt1003.4TS SHRA
00:00 UTC5647230° 14 kt

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1967 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of January 24, 1967

29 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
January 2411:50 AM GMT-6F2Buchanan, MO6.1100$50,000 to $500,000
January 2412:35 PM GMT-6F2Clinton, MO2.550$5,000 to $50,000
January 2412:40 PM GMT-6F3Jackson, MO14.5200218$500,000 to $5 million
January 2412:50 PM GMT-6F0Caldwell, MO2.0100$5,000 to $50,000
January 242:00 PM GMT-6F0Livingston, MO0.110under $50
January 242:20 PM GMT-6F1Sullivan, MO7.350$5,000 to $50,000
January 242:45 PM GMT-6F4Schuyler, MO to IA25.74402$500,000 to $5 million
January 242:45 PM GMT-6F1Putnam, MO2.550$500 to $5,000
January 243:15 PM GMT-6F3Van Buren, IA25.0400$50,000 to $500,000
January 243:45 PM GMT-6F1Washington, IA1.0200$500 to $5,000
January 243:50 PM GMT-6F0Henry, IA0.1150$50,000 to $500,000
January 244:00 PM GMT-6F2Louisa, IA3.0250under $50
January 244:15 PM GMT-6F3Lee, IA4.330016$50,000 to $500,000
January 244:20 PM GMT-6F2Louisa, IA2.01501$5,000 to $50,000
January 244:40 PM GMT-6F2Henderson, IL5.777$5,000 to $50,000
January 244:45 PM GMT-6F2Clinton, IA2.0150$5,000 to $50,000
January 244:50 PM GMT-6F2Scott, IA2.0143$5,000 to $50,000
January 245:11 PM GMT-6F2Scott, IA2.0250$50,000 to $500,000
January 245:15 PM GMT-6F2Clinton, IA1.0200$5,000 to $50,000
January 245:15 PM GMT-6F2Clinton, IA0.1100$50,000 to $500,000
January 245:30 PM GMT-6F3Carroll, IL7.47712$50,000 to $500,000
January 245:30 PM GMT-6F1Mason, IL4.5301
January 245:30 PM GMT-6F3Mason, IL5.18013$5,000 to $50,000
January 246:10 PM GMT-6F3Green, WI24.9200$50,000 to $500,000
January 246:30 PM GMT-6F2Woodford, IL3.377$500 to $5,000
January 246:50 PM GMT-6F2Macoupin, IL2.5100$50,000 to $500,000
January 246:50 PM GMT-6F2McLean, IL2.573$5,000 to $50,000
January 246:55 PM GMT-6F4Saint Louis, MO25.02003216$5 million to $50 million
January 248:40 PM GMT-6F2Champaign, IL10.4505$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.