Tornadoes · United States · Iowa · 1981

F1 tornado, Scott and Clinton counties, Iowa, April 4, 1981

This F1 tornado ran 20.5 miles across Scott and Clinton counties on April 4, 1981, touching down at 12:30 AM CST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500,000 to $5 million 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 mphthis tornado

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

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    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
F1
Date
April 4, 1981
Touchdown
12:30 AM CST (06:30 UTC)
Path length
20.5 miles (33.0 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500,000 to $5 million
Counties
Scott and Clinton counties
Touchdown point
41.780, -90.780
Lift-off point
42.000, -90.470
Record number
79

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), 00:00Z

6.5 hours before the tornado, 160 km from the path. April 4, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 00:00Z on 1981-04-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 97 joules per kilogram, CIN -151, lifted condensation level 1040 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 1981-04-04The 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 412 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 62 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
97 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-151 J/kg
Surface CAPE
124 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1040 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
62 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
412 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
408 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

5.5 hours after it, 160 km from the path. April 4, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 12:00Z on 1981-04-04Temperature 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 -68, lifted condensation level 1738 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 1981-04-04The 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 116 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 153 knots.1939587897117136156175Sfc1 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
-68 J/kg
Surface CAPE
34 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1738 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
153 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
116 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
129 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Moline (MLI), 50 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
05:00 UTC6655190° 17 kt30991.5-SHRA
06:00 UTC6558190° 10 kt990.2
07:00 UTC5951200° 20 kt992.6
08:00 UTC5750210° 4 kt990.2-SHRA

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1981 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 4, 1981

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 412:04 AM CSTF4Washington, WI1.8100353$5 million to $50 million
April 412:30 AM CSTF1Rock Island, IL4.91004$500,000 to $5 million
April 412:35 AM CSTF2Calumet, WI0.1236$50,000 to $500,000

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.