F0 tornado, Bloomfield, Iowa, June 6, 2006

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.

Rating

F0

Date

June 6, 2006

Touchdown

5:12 PM CDT (22:12 UTC)

Path length

0.2 miles (0.3 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Davis County

Touchdown point

40.800, -92.350

Lift-off point

40.800, -92.350

Record number

601

A frontal boundary tacked southeast across Iowa during the afternoon of the 6th. The front was more of a dry line than anything as afternoon conditions ahead of the front showed temperatures in the low 80s with dew point readings in the upper 60s to low 70s, while behind it highs were in the upper 80s to low 90s with dew points in the 40s. The airmass ahead of the front became unstable with CAPE values in the 2000 J/kg range. Lifted indices fell to around -6 just ahead of the boundary. The freezing level was relatively low at around 12,000 feet and the environment was conducive for tornado development with LCL levels in the 1000 to 1500 meter range, though the shear environment was relatively week with about 30 kts or so of shear in the 0-3 km level. Thunderstorms fired during the afternoon and became severe. Many of the storms produced hail of nickle size to a little larger. One of the stronger storms produced golf ball size hail south of Floris in Davis County. The storm also gave a tornadic signature on radar presentation. There were some reports of wind gusts to around 50 MPH, however winds were not a major factor with this event. There was one brief tornado touchdown northeast of Bloomfield in Davis County. The tornado touched down in an open area and there were no reports of damage.

Brief tornado touchdown in open area.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS DMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:10 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:55 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.

The Des Moines radar (KDMX), 155 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:12 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are

6 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.