Tornadoes · United States · Iowa · 1995

F0 tornado, Lowden to Bennet, Iowa, July 27, 1995

From Lowden to Bennet, this F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Cedar County on July 27, 1995, touching down at 5:18 PM CDT and reaching 23 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500 to $5,000 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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
F0
Date
July 27, 1995
Touchdown
5:18 PM CDT (22:18 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
23 yards (21 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500 to $5,000
County
Cedar County
Touchdown point
41.730, -90.980
Record number
962

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:38 UTC22:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDVN
23:15 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningDVN
00:07 UTC01:15 UTCTornado WarningDVN

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:00 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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.

Davenport, (KDVN), 12:00Z

10.3 hours before the tornado, 42 km from the path. July 27, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 1995-07-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 832 joules per kilogram, CIN -65, lifted condensation level 851 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, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 1995-07-27The 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 48 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 14 knots.1939Sfc1 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
832 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-65 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
851 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
48 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
115 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Davenport, (KDVN), 00:00Z

1.7 hours after it, 42 km from the path. July 28, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 1995-07-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2692 joules per kilogram, CIN -25, lifted condensation level 944 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 1995-07-28The 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 -92 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 53 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
2692 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-25 J/kg
Surface CAPE
645 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
944 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-92 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
534 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
100.9
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Muscatine (MUT), 43 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:00 UTC9274.84180° 14 kt201004.7
22:00 UTC88.8876180° 13 kt231003.7
23:00 UTC8778190° 9 kt1004.1
00:00 UTC8779190° 8 kt1004.4

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1995 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 27, 1995

26 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 279:00 AM CDTF1Brown, MN1.050$500 to $5,000
July 2711:50 AM CDTF2Mower, MN3.540
July 273:50 PM CDTF3Buchanan, IA20.0150$500,000 to $5 million
July 274:30 PM CDTF0Jo Daviess, IL0.110
July 274:55 PM CDTF0Cedar, IA0.120
July 275:21 PM CDTF0Jones, IA0.123$500 to $5,000
July 275:28 PM CDTF2Clinton, IA10.570$50,000 to $500,000
July 275:42 PM CDTF2Clinton, IA5.560$5,000 to $50,000
July 275:49 PM CDTF2Clinton, IA to IL20.0400$50,000 to $500,000
July 275:54 PM CDTF0Clinton, IA0.333$500 to $5,000
July 276:45 PM CDTF0Linn, IA0.123$500 to $5,000
July 276:45 PM CDTF0Mercer, IL0.110
July 277:55 PM EDTF0Saint Mary's, MD0.550$5,000 to $50,000
July 277:00 PM CDTF0Mercer, IL0.110$5,000 to $50,000
July 277:17 PM CDTF0Knox, IL0.110
July 277:20 PM CDTF0Lee, IL0.220
July 277:45 PM CDTF0Muscatine, IA0.530$500 to $5,000
July 277:46 PM CDTF0Knox, IL0.110
July 277:51 PM CDTF2Cedar, IA7.5100$50,000 to $500,000
July 278:22 PM CDTF0Peoria, IL0.110
July 278:42 PM CDTF0Peoria, IL0.110
July 278:42 PM CDTF0Warren, IL0.110
July 278:48 PM CDTF0Peoria, IL0.110
July 279:15 PM CDTF0Peoria, IL0.110
July 279:35 PM CDTF0Henderson, IL0.110
July 2710:30 PM CDTF0Marshall, IL0.110

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.