Tornadoes · United States · Iowa · 2007
EF1 tornado, Lime City, Iowa, June 1, 2007
This EF1 tornado ran 1.1 miles across Cedar County on June 1, 2007, touching down at 12:44 PM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
EF2111 to 135 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.
EF3136 to 165 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
EF5over 200 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.
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
- EF1
- Date
- June 1, 2007
- Touchdown
- 12:44 PM CDT (17:44 UTC)
- Lifted
- 12:45 PM CDT (17:45 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 1.1 miles (1.7 km)
- Path width
- 75 yards (69 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Cedar County
- Touchdown point
- 41.684, -91.059
- Lift-off point
- 41.699, -91.056
- Record number
- 0706011144-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A line of thunderstorms pivoted northeast into parts of southeast Iowa during the mid-morning hours of June 1st. Much of the area was just breaking out of a blanket of dense fog where visibilities dropped to less than a quarter mile. Dew point temperatures were in the middle 60s to around 70 degrees. ||The line of storms appeared to become more broken through the late morning hours, while the area from Iowa City to Waterloo appeared to stratify out into a large area of showers. Just before 12:00 pm CDT, rapid intensification of storm cells on the southeast end of the original line occurred as it moved into northern portions of Louisa County. ||A tornado touched down just south of Grandview, IA and moved northeast through Fruitland, IA and on to the southwest parts of Muscatine, IA. The tornado then lifted and as the storm cell continued to move northeast across Muscatine County. The super-cell re-intensified as it entered the southeast part of Cedar County just before 1 pm producing a brief tornado near Wilton, IA. The storm then moved across northwest parts of Scott County and Clinton County producing damaging wind gusts and large hail. The super-cell continued northeast into Jackson County producing a tornado near Bellevue around 2:30 pm, which moved across the Mississippi River into Jo Daviess County before lifting. The storm produced yet another tornado just south of Scales Mound, IL around 3:15 pm before moving into southwest Wisconsin and dissipating.||During the early afternoon hours, additional storms strengthened on the south end of the original line of storms, which went on to produce wind damage and large hail as they moved through northwest Illinois through the late afternoon hours.
A tornado touched down about 6 miles southwest of Bennett, IA. It went through a pasture uprooting some trees.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
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.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:37 UTC and running to 21:08 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17:37 UTC | 21:08 UTC | Tornado Watch | DVN |
| 17:47 UTC | 18:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DVN |
| 17:53 UTC | 18:26 UTC | Tornado Warning | DVN |
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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 17:32 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
5.7 hours before the tornado, 47 km from the path. June 1, 2007.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 259 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -43 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 393 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 871 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 33 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 10 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 47 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 77 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.3 K/km
Davenport, (KDVN), 00:00Z
6.3 hours after it, 47 km from the path. June 2, 2007.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 21 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -79 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 185 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1264 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 12 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 9 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 59 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 70 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.7 K/km
The surface observations
Muscatine (MUT), 37 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15:49 UTC | 73 | 70 | 130° 7 kt | 1011.9 | ||
| 15:59 UTC | 73 | 70 | 120° 6 kt | 1011.9 | ||
| 16:09 UTC | 73 | 70 | 130° 9 kt | 1011.9 | ||
| 16:19 UTC | 73 | 70 | 100° 9 kt | 1011.2 | ||
| 16:29 UTC | 73 | 70 | 100° 8 kt | 14 | 1010.8 | |
| 16:35 UTC | 71.6 | 69.8 | 110° 9 kt | 1010.8 | -RA | |
| 16:39 UTC | 73 | 70 | 100° 7 kt | 1010.8 | ||
| 16:49 UTC | 73 | 70 | 90° 8 kt | 1009.8 | ||
| 16:55 UTC | 71.6 | 69.8 | 100° 9 kt | 1009.5 | -RA | |
| 16:59 UTC | 73 | 71 | 100° 8 kt | 1009.5 | ||
| 17:06 UTC | 73 | 71 | 110° 7 kt | 1009.5 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 41 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:42 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17:09 UTC | TORNADO | 2 N Wapello | Louisa, IA | TORNADO ON GROUND REPORTED BY PUBLIC NEAR HIGHWAY 92 NORTH OF WAPELLO. |
| 17:15 UTC | TORNADO | Grandview | Louisa, IA | SEVERE DAMAGE TO HOMES. CITY OF GRANDVIEW CORDONED OFF BY POLICE DUE TO THE DAMAGE. DELAYED REPORT. |
| 17:19 UTC | TORNADO | 3 W Muscatine | Muscatine, IA | TRAINED SPOTTER REPORTS TORNADO AT BURLINGTON ROAD NEAR THE AIRPORT. |
| 17:25 UTC | TORNADO | Muscatine | Muscatine, IA | SEMI TRAILER TRUCKS OVERTURNED AT THE INDUSTRIAL CENTER IN MUSCATINE. DELAYED REPORT. |
| 17:26 UTC | TORNADO | Muscatine | Muscatine, IA | TORNADO ON THE GROUND NEAR THE BYPASS IN MUSCATINE. DEBRIS IN THE AIR. POSSIBLE DAMAGE. |
| 17:32 UTC | TORNADO | 1 N Muscatine | Muscatine, IA | TORNADO ON THE GROUND NORTH SIDE OF MUSCATINE. DEBRIS FLYING INTO THE AIR. |
| 17:44 UTC | TORNADO | 6 Sw Bennett | Cedar, IA | NWS STORM SURVEY SHOWED EF1 TORNADO TRACK APPROXIMATELY 6 MILES SOUTHWEST OF BENNETT. 1 MILE LONG AND 75 YARDS WIDE. TREES WERE SNAPPED. |
| 17:51 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Nw Wilton | Cedar, IA | TORNADO ON THE GROUND WITH DEBRIS IN THE AIR NW OF WILTON. |
| 18:40 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | Davenport | Scott, IA | ESTIMATED 60 MPH WINDS AT THE WALMART NEAR ELMORE AND I-74. |
| 19:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 7 W Clinton | Clinton, IA | TREES DOWN ON NORTH SIDE OF HIGHWAY 30 NEAR LOW MOOR EXIT. TIME ESTIMATED. DELAYED REPORT. |
| 19:05 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Se Maquoketa | Clinton, IA | TWO TORNADOS REPORTED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT MOVING NE. |
| 19:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Ne Pleasant Valley | Scott, IA | TREES BLOWN DOWN |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 1, 2007
9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 1 | 12:55 PM EDT | EF0 | Monroe, FL | 0.6 | 30 | $20,000 | ||
| June 1 | 12:07 PM CDT | EF3 | Louisa, IA | 15.8 | 774 | 7 | $16 million | |
| June 1 | 2:28 PM CDT | EF2 | Jackson, IA to IL | 3.4 | 350 | $3.3 million | ||
| June 1 | 3:15 PM CDT | EF0 | Jo Daviess, IL | 0.5 | 10 | |||
| June 1 | 3:17 PM CDT | EF0 | Lafayette, WI | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| June 1 | 3:31 PM CDT | EF0 | Lafayette, WI | 0.2 | 30 | |||
| June 1 | 6:30 PM CDT | EF0 | Hamilton, IA | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| June 1 | 7:25 PM CDT | EF0 | Gaines, TX | 2.5 | 50 | |||
| June 1 | 9:45 PM EDT | EF1 | Miami-Dade, FL | 3.9 | 75 | $20,000 |
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.