F1 tornado, Blue Grass to Bettendorf, Iowa, June 14, 2001

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.

Rating

F1

Date

June 14, 2001

Touchdown

6:11 PM CDT (23:11 UTC)

Path length

3.0 miles (4.8 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Scott County

Touchdown point

41.530, -90.520

Lift-off point

41.530, -90.520

Record number

274

An F2 tornado touched down at 501 pm CST, around a half mile east/northeast of Montpelier, near Highway 22 and the Muscatine/Scott County line. The tornado then tracked northeast into Scott County, was on the ground about 6.5 miles, and was 200 yards wide. The tornado ripped the roof off of three homes in Blue Grass, and produced lesser damage to many other homes. Three people in Blue Grass sustained minor injuries. The tornado produced F2 damage in the area around Normandy Street in Blue Grass, before lifting 2.5 miles northeast of the community at 506 pm CST.

An F1 tornado touched down in Bettendorf, just east of the Interstate 74/Highway 67 intersection, at 511 pm CST. The tornado moved northeast, and lifted in northeast Bettendorf near Norwood Drive at 520 pm CST. The tornado was on the ground for about three miles, and was 500 yards wide. It ripped the roof off one home and produced damage to several others. There were no injuries.Summary of 6/14/01 event: (For additional details, see individual entries for the date)A thunderstorm complex developed over north central Missouri and south central Iowa during the early afternoon hours. The complex quickly evolved into a squall line/bow echo that swept over much of the NWS Quad Cities County Warning Area, which includes eastern Iowa, northwest and west central Illinois, and far northeast Missouri. Numerous funnel clouds and two confirmed tornadoes developed along the leading edge of the line. Three people suffered minor injuries during one of the tornadoes, and two people were injured when straight line winds blew their semi-trailer trucks over. There were no fatalities. There was widespread straight-line wind damage, along with isolated downbursts and large hail. Wind gusts up to 80 mph were reported.

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

14 minutes of warning. NWS DVN issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:57 UTC, 14 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:41 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 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.

Moline (MLI), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 10 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:11 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2001 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

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