Tornadoes · United States · Iowa · 2007

EF0 tornado, Ellsworth, Iowa, June 1, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Hamilton County on June 1, 2007, touching down at 6:30 PM CDT and reaching 30 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.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

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

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. 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.

  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
EF0
Date
June 1, 2007
Touchdown
6:30 PM CDT (23:30 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Hamilton County
Touchdown point
42.320, -93.619
Lift-off point
42.320, -93.619
Record number
0706011730-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A strong upper level low pressure was tracking southeast across South Dakota during the day. Iowa was on the edge of the cool pool associated with this low. Severe parameters were not all that strong. During peak heating, there was an increase in 0-1 km storm relative helicity and the shear values did increase to around 30 kts. A line of thunderstorms formed along the edge of the cooler air. One of the storms produced a brief tornado in Hamilton County just west of Ellsworth. The tornado touched down in open area and caused little damage. There were also several reports of funnel clouds around Hamilton and Grundy Counties.

Tornado touched down briefly in open fields west of Ellsworth.

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.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 21:59 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.

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 12:00Z

11.5 hours before the tornado, 254 km from the path. June 1, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 2007-06-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 12 joules per kilogram, CIN -347, lifted condensation level 1239 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, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 2007-06-01The 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 42 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
12 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-347 J/kg
Surface CAPE
27 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1239 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
42 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
49 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 00:00Z

0.5 hours after it, 254 km from the path. June 2, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 2007-06-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -113278, lifted condensation level 1110 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 2007-06-02The 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 15 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-113278 J/kg
Surface CAPE
24 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1110 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
15 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
66 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Des Moines radar (KDMX), 66 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:29 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
23:35 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDEllsworthHamilton, IATWO REPORTS FROM PUBLIC RELAYED BY COUNTY SHERIFF
00:35 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDWhittenGrundy, IA

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.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 112:55 PM EDTEF0Monroe, FL0.630$20,000
June 112:07 PM CDTEF3Louisa, IA15.87747$16 million
June 112:44 PM CDTEF1Cedar, IA1.175
June 12:28 PM CDTEF2Jackson, IA to IL3.4350$3.3 million
June 13:15 PM CDTEF0Jo Daviess, IL0.510
June 13:17 PM CDTEF0Lafayette, WI0.120
June 13:31 PM CDTEF0Lafayette, WI0.230
June 17:25 PM CDTEF0Gaines, TX2.550
June 19:45 PM EDTEF1Miami-Dade, FL3.975$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.