EF1 tornado, Dow City to Vail, Iowa, May 29, 2008

1. EF065 to 85 mph

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

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF1

Date

May 29, 2008

Touchdown

8:46 PM CDT (01:46 UTC)

Lifted

8:49 PM CDT (01:49 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.5 miles (4.0 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

Crop damage

$10,000

County

Crawford County

Touchdown point

42.023, -95.300

Lift-off point

42.039, -95.256

Record number

0805291946-01

A very unstable airmass moved into Iowa during the day on the 29th as a warm front lifted north into the state during the afternoon. Low pressure approached from the west, along with a cold front so that the triple point was near the western Iowa, eastern Nebraska area by late afternoon. Thunderstorms erupted quickly during the late afternoon and evening hours in the unstable airmass. By evening, the low level jet was in the 40 to 60 kt range, feeding moisture into the state and pushing precipitable water values to around 200% of normal, in the 1.5 to 1.8 inch range. MUCAPE reached 3000 to 3500 J/kg over western Iowa, with lifted indices in the -6 to -10 C. range. The freezing level was quite high, limiting the hail size somewhat with this event, at 14,300 feet. The available CAPE in the -10 to -30 C. layer of the atmosphere was in the 300 to 500 J/kg range. The DCAPE was between 800 and 1000 J/kg. The environment was highly sheared with 50 to 65 kts of shear available during the event. The LCL was also quite low, in the 750 to 1250 meter range. Thunderstorms erupted over western Iowa stretching into north central Iowa first. It did not take long for the storms to become severe with hail and high winds. Most of the hail reported was in the pea to marble size, with the larger stones in the nickel to quarter size range. The primary mode of severe weather was high winds and several tornadoes. The secondary, but significant threat, was heavy rainfall. A band of 3 to 5 inches of rain fell between U.S. Highway 30 and U.S. Highway 20 during the event. The heaviest rainfall total was in Greene County at Jefferson, with 5.90 inches. Tornadoes began to touch down in western Iowa in Crawford County with two brief touchdowns. One was west of Dow City, causing roof and shingle damage to a farmhouse there. The next was east of Denison where a barn roof was removed and a trailer house was destroyed. A tornado in Carroll County caused damage to 3 farmsteads southeast of Templeton. A machine shed was completely destroyed and numerous other buildings sustained damage. Trees also had substantial damage. Two tornadoes touched down in Calhoun County. One near Farnhamville, tore the roof off of a home and downed power lines. The second caused damage to trees, outbuildings, and power lines on four farmsteads. Farther south, a brief touchdown was reported in Dallas County in open fields west of Minburn. Another tornado touched down in Dallas County later on, west of Adel, and was on the ground for about 4 miles. A more substantial tornado touched down near Murray in Clarke County with one reported on the ground for about 9 miles. As the storms moved east, another tornado was on the ground for over 10 miles in Warren and Marion Counties. The most significant tornado occurred in Marion and Mahaska Counties where an EF2 tornado was on the ground for about 18 miles. Several homes were damaged along its path, two mobile homes were destroyed, and considerable damage was done to trees in the area. Up to 10 people were injured with this tornado, mainly in Attica. The official damage count from this tornado included 5 homes destroyed, 15 with major damage, and another 25 with minor damage. Many of the storms produced high winds with several reports of winds in the 65 to 75 MPH range. Considerable tree damage was reported and some structural damage, mainly outbuildings and shingle damage. Two cars were blown off of the road east of Manning by the high winds. Building debris was blown onto Highway D60 near Gowrie, causing a brief closure. High winds in Butler County blew down a machine shed and barn southwest of Aplington, very near to where an EF5 tornado struck just days before. Extensive damage was done to a farmstead there with some damage done to the house itself as well. Lightning struck a man in Carroll. The lightning bolt hit his driveway, blowing out a chunk of concrete out of the driveway and also injured the man. He was taken to hospital, treated, and released with minor injuries. Flooding became a significant issue after the heavy rainfall of the previous few days. Extensive river flooding occurred across the central third of the state. Record crests were recorded on the Iowa River at Marshalltown.

Damage was done to a farm house with shingles removed and tree damage to the yard. Windows were also blown out of the house.

Tornado took a barn roof off, some of the shingles of the house were blown off and numerous trees were downed. A hog confinement was leveled and damage was done to a trailer park.

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

17 minutes of warning. NWS DMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:29 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:15 UTC and running to 07:29 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:39 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 Omaha radar (KOAX), 120 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:01 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 2008 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are

37 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.