Tornadoes · United States · Iowa · 2009

EF0 tornado, Villisca to Sciola, Iowa, March 23, 2009

Name: EF0 tornado, Villisca to Sciola, Iowa, March 23, 2009
Start: 2009-03-24T00:52:00.000Z
End: 2009-03-24T00:55:00.000Z
Location: Villisca to Sciola, Iowa

From Villisca to Sciola, this EF0 tornado ran 2.6 miles across Montgomery County on March 23, 2009, touching down at 7:52 PM CDT and reaching 25 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 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
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: EF0
Date: March 23, 2009
Touchdown: 7:52 PM CDT (00:52 UTC)
Lifted: 7:55 PM CDT (00:55 UTC)
On the ground: 3 minutes
Path length: 2.6 miles (4.2 km)
Path width: 25 yards (23 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
County: Montgomery County
Touchdown point: 40.915, -95.066
Lift-off point: 40.949, -95.044
Record number: 0903231852-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An intense upper level low pressure system tracked from eastern Colorado into southeast South Dakota from March 23rd to March 24th. This caused a surface low pressure system to move from western Nebraska into southeast South Dakota during that time. As the low tracked northeast, a dry-line moved into eastern Nebraska during the afternoon of March 23rd. With surface temperatures in the 60s and 70s, and dewpoint temperatures in the 50s, ample instability was in place to allow a line of severe thunderstorms to develop as the dry-line punched eastward. Several fast moving and low-topped supercell thunderstorms were embedded in the line, and one cell produced cyclic tornadoes from southeast of Lincoln into western Iowa. The storms in the line were moving north northeast at between 50 and 60 mph. In addition to the severe weather, strong southerly gradient winds prevailed ahead of the low pressure. In some cases the winds gusted between 50 and 60 mph for several hours across parts of eastern Nebraska.

The tornado touched down just southwest of the intersection of 270th and Q Ave. west-southwest of Villisca. Near that point the roof was torn off of an outbuilding and an empty grain bin was blown across the road. A barn had some roof structure damage 2 to 3 miles north of there, near where the tornado apparently lifted.

The tornado touched down near Tenville destroying trees at a cemetery, causing house and farm outbuilding damage in the area and other tree and roof damage along its path. This tornado was from the same supercell that produced a tornado just to the south of here.

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

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 19:42 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.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Omaha, NE wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Mar 23, 1:56 PM CDT, 5 hours 56 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Mar 23, 1:56 PM CDT, 5 hours 56 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OMAHA/VALLEY NE
156 PM CDT MON MAR 23 2009

.DISCUSSION...

STRONG GRADIENT WINDS ARE THE MAIN CONCERN BEFORE SEVERE WEATHER
BREAKS OUT ACROSS THE AREA MID-LATE AFTERNOON. WL CONTINUE THE HIGH
WIND WARNING AND WIND ADVISORY HEADLINES PREVIOUSLY IN EFFECT
UNTIL 00Z. 18Z SUBJECTIVE SFC ANALYSIS SHOWS 987MB LOW CENTERED OVER
KLBF WITH DRY LINE EXTENDING SWD INTO NRN OK. CU FIELD BEGINNING
TO BREAK OUT ALONG DRY LINE AND STORMS BEGINNING TO FIRE ACROSS
CNTRL NEB. WRMFNT ARCHES FROM THE LOW CENTER NORTH OF KORD TO NEAR
KOLU AND POINTS SEWD. ELEVATED CONVECTION APPEARS TO BE TRYING TO
DEVELOP NORTH OF THIS BOUNDARY. AIRMASS HAS YET TO DESTABILIZE
ACROSS CWA YET...BUT AS SUNSHINE BREAKS OUT FROM WEST TO EAST...IT
SHOULDNT TAKE MUCH TIME TO INCREASE MLCAPE VALUES. FAVORABLE 0-6KM
BULK SHEAR VALUES WOULD SUPPORT SUPERCELLS AND ANY STORMS THAT DO
DEVELOP WILL MOVE INTO 0-1KM SHEAR VALUES OF NEAR 35-40KTS WHICH
COULD AID IN A QUICK SPIN UP. OTHERWISE...STORMS FIRING ALONG THE
DRYLINE ARE LIKELY TO FORM INTO A SQUALL LINE AS THEY SHIFT EAST
THRU THE NIGHT.

SVR WX THREAT SHOULD SUBSIDE BY 03Z WITH THE LINE MOVING INTO CNTRL
IA AS THE SFC LOW MOVES INTO ERN SD. COLDER AIR WL PUSH IN BEHIND
THE SYSTEM AND ANY WRAP AROUND SHOULD TURN INTO LIGHT SNOW ACROSS
FAR NORTHEAST NEBRASKA. ONLY A DUSTING OF ACCUMULATION IS EXPECTED.
NORTHWEST TO WEST WINDS WL BE QUITE BREEZY TUESDAY.

SPLIT FLOW SETS UP BY THURSDAY WITH SOUTHERN STREAM MOVING A STRONG
CLOSED OFF LOW OVER THE FOUR CORNERS REGION WHILE NORTHERN STREAM
STAYS FAR TO OUR NORTH ALONG THE INTERNATIONAL BORDER. THIS SOUTHERN
STREAM SYSTEM LOOKS TO BRING A RETURN OF WINTER TO THE CNTRL PLAINS
THURSDAY NIGHT THRU SATURDAY. STRONG BAROCLINIC ZONE WL SET UP WITH
COLD AIR MASS STRETCHED OUT ACROSS THE FORECAST AREA THRU THE
DURATION OF THE EVENT. GOOD AGREEMENT IN PLACEMENT OF THIS SYSTEM
KEEPS FORECAST AREA IN DEFORMATION ZONE. STRONG SFC GRADIENT BEHIND
THE SYSTEM WOULD KEEP WINDS VERY STRONG THRU THE WEEKEND. HEAVY SNOW
IN COMBINATION WITH STRONG WINDS COULD MAKE FOR A VERY MESSY END OF
THE WEEK/BEGINNING OF THE WEEKEND. WL KEEP A CLOSE EYE ON THIS POSSIBLE
WINTER STORM EVENT.

&&

.AVIATION...
FOR TAF SITES KOFK/KOMA/KLNK THRU 24/18Z.

STRONG SOUTH WINDS WL CONTINUE ACROSS THE TAF SITES THRU EARLY
EVENING HOURS WITH MVFR CONDITIONS EXPECTED. SCATTERED TSTMS ARE
POSSIBLE THRU 03Z...SOME COULD BE SEVERE WITH VISIBILITIES LESS
THAN 2 MILES AT TIMES. AS THE STRONG STORM SYSTEM MOVES NEWD
OVERNIGHT...KOFK COULD SEE PCPN CHANGE TO LIGHT SNOW WITH
CONTINUED MVFR CIGS AROUND 12-18Z.

&&

.OAX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
NE...WIND ADVISORY UNTIL 7 PM CDT THIS EVENING FOR NEZ015>018-030>034-
     042>045-050>053-066>068-090>093.

     HIGH WIND WARNING UNTIL 7 PM CDT THIS EVENING FOR NEZ065-078-088-
     089.

IA...WIND ADVISORY UNTIL 7 PM CDT THIS EVENING FOR IAZ043-055-056-069-
     079-080-090-091.

&&

GRIFFIS

Hazardous weather outlook, Mar 23, 11:31 AM CDT, 8 hours 21 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...CORRECTED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OMAHA/VALLEY NE
1131 AM CDT MON MAR 23 2009

IAZ043-055-056-069-079-080-090-091-NEZ011-012-015>018-030>034-
042>045-050>053-065>068-078-088>093-240000-
MONONA-HARRISON-SHELBY-POTTAWATTAMIE-MILLS-MONTGOMERY-FREMONT-
PAGE-KNOX-CEDAR-THURSTON-ANTELOPE-PIERCE-WAYNE-BOONE-MADISON-
STANTON-CUMING-BURT-PLATTE-COLFAX-DODGE-WASHINGTON-BUTLER-
SAUNDERS-DOUGLAS-SARPY-SEWARD-LANCASTER-CASS-OTOE-SALINE-
JEFFERSON-GAGE-JOHNSON-NEMAHA-PAWNEE-RICHARDSON-
1131 AM CDT MON MAR 23 2009

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF EASTERN NEBRASKA
AND WESTERN IOWA.

.DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT

SEVERE STORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP THIS AFTERNOON ACROSS
CENTRAL NEBRASKA...THEN MOVE INTO EASTERN NEBRASKA BY LATE
AFTERNOON...AND INTO WESTERN IOWA BY EARLY THIS EVENING.

THUNDERSTORMS SHOULD BEGIN TO IMPACT AREAS ALONG AND WEST OF A
LINE FROM WAYNE TO BEATRICE BY 3 PM...THE REMAINDER OF EASTERN
NEBRASKA BY 4 TO 6 PM...AND ACROSS WESTERN IOWA AFTER 6 PM. SEVERE
THUNDERSTORMS CONTAINING LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS ARE THE
PRIMARY HAZARDS...ALTHOUGH LOW LEVEL WIND SHEAR IS QUITE STRONG
RESULTING IN ISOLATED TORNADOES AS WELL.

A VERY STRONG AREA OF LOW PRESSURE ACROSS WEST CENTRAL NEBRASKA
WILL MOVE TO NORTHEAST NEBRASKA BY EARLY EVENING. FORECAST
SOUNDINGS INDICATE THAT A MID LEVEL CAP SHOULD SUFFICIENTLY WEAKEN
BY MID TO LATE AFTERNOON TO ALLOW SEVERE THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT.
DISCRETE CELLS MAY INITIALLY DEVELOP...BUT MERGING INTO A SQUALL
LINE THAT DEVELOPS SOUTHWARD INTO THE SOUTHERN PLAINS AS THE DRY
LINE SWEEPS EASTWARD THROUGH THE AREA.

IN ADDITION TO THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM THREAT...STRONG SOUTH OR
SOUTHEAST WINDS WILL PREVAIL OVER THE AREA TODAY...WITH GUSTS OF
45 TO 60 MPH EXPECTED. THUS...A WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT
FOR MUCH OF THE REGION. IN ADDITION...A HIGH WIND WARNING IS IN
EFFECT FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHEAST NEBRASKA. WINDS SHOULD DECREASE
OVER THE AREA THIS EVENING...AND THE SEVERE WEATHER THREAT SHOULD
SHIFT SOUTH AND EAST OUT OF THE REGION BY MIDNIGHT AND BEYOND.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY

ANOTHER STORM SYSTEM IS FORECAST TO DEVELOP OVER THE PLAINS LATE
THIS WEEK INTO SATURDAY. CURRENT INDICATIONS ARE THAT THIS SYSTEM
WILL TRACK FARTHER SOUTH THAN THE ONE AFFECTING THE REGION
TODAY...THUS PUTTING MORE OF THE AREA AT RISK FOR ACCUMULATING
SNOW. AS USUAL...LOCATIONS THAT WILL RECEIVE SNOW...AND EXACT
AMOUNTS...WILL DEPEND HEAVILY ON THE TRACK OF THIS STORM SYSTEM.
STAY TUNED TO LATER FORECASTS ON THIS DEVELOPING WINTER STORM
LATER IN THE WEEK.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

STORM SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL MOSTLY LIKELY BE NEEDED FROM MID
AFTERNOON INTO MID EVENING...INITIALLY ACROSS EASTERN
NEBRASKA...AND EVENTUALLY ACROSS WESTERN IOWA.

DEWALD

In the hours before

Local storm report, Mar 23, 6:09 PM CDT, 1 hour 43 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OMAHA/VALLEY NEBRASKA
609 PM CDT MON MAR 23 2009

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0605 PM     TORNADO          6 SW LOGAN              41.58N 95.87W
03/23/2009                   HARRISON           IA   FIRE DEPT/RESCUE

&&

BG

Local storm report, Mar 23, 6:10 PM CDT, 1 hour 42 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OMAHA/VALLEY NEBRASKA
610 PM CDT MON MAR 23 2009

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0602 PM     HAIL             3 NE GRETNA             41.17N 96.20W
03/23/2009  M0.75 INCH       SARPY              NE   NWS EMPLOYEE

&&

BG

Local storm report, Mar 23, 6:19 PM CDT, 1 hour 33 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OMAHA/VALLEY NEBRASKA
619 PM CDT MON MAR 23 2009

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0613 PM     HAIL             3 N BENNINGTON          41.41N 96.16W
03/23/2009  M0.75 INCH       WASHINGTON         NE   TRAINED SPOTTER

0616 PM     HAIL             OMAHA                   41.26N 96.01W
03/23/2009  M0.88 INCH       DOUGLAS            NE   TRAINED SPOTTER

            132ND FORT

&&

DFOBERT

Local storm report, Mar 23, 7:13 PM CDT, 39 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OMAHA/VALLEY NEBRASKA
713 PM CDT MON MAR 23 2009

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0708 PM     TSTM WND GST     FALLS CITY              40.07N 95.60W
03/23/2009  M59 MPH          RICHARDSON         NE   ASOS

&&

MAYES

Local storm report, Mar 23, 7:37 PM CDT, 15 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OMAHA/VALLEY NEBRASKA
737 PM CDT MON MAR 23 2009

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0533 PM     HAIL             ELKHORN                 41.28N 96.24W
03/23/2009  M0.75 INCH       DOUGLAS            NE   NWS EMPLOYEE

            204TH DODGE

0620 PM     HAIL             5 N FALLS CITY          40.14N 95.60W
03/23/2009  M0.75 INCH       RICHARDSON         NE   EMERGENCY MNGR

0605 PM     TSTM WND DMG     2 N MISSOURI VALLEY     41.59N 95.90W
03/23/2009                   HARRISON           IA   FIRE DEPT/RESCUE

            2 SEMIS OVERTURNED ON I29

0630 PM     TSTM WND DMG     5 S SALEM               40.00N 95.73W
03/23/2009                   RICHARDSON         NE   EMERGENCY MNGR

            TREES DOWN AND POWER OUT

0634 PM     HAIL             1 E MONDAMIN            41.71N 96.00W
03/23/2009  M1.00 INCH       HARRISON           IA   TRAINED SPOTTER

&&

DFOBERT

Local storm report, Mar 23, 7:48 PM CDT, 4 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OMAHA/VALLEY NEBRASKA
748 PM CDT MON MAR 23 2009

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0730 PM     HAIL             7 E ESSEX               40.83N 95.17W
03/23/2009  M1.50 INCH       PAGE               IA   TRAINED SPOTTER

0745 PM     HAIL             5 S STANTON             40.91N 95.10W
03/23/2009  M1.00 INCH       MONTGOMERY         IA   FIRE DEPT/RESCUE

&&

DFOBERT

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), 00:00Z

0.9 hours before the tornado, 118 km from the path. March 24, 2009.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

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: 65 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -150 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 200 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1676 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 59 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 226 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 222 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.4
0-3 km lapse rate: 6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 12:00Z

11.1 hours after it, 118 km from the path. March 24, 2009.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

Mixed-layer CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -95378 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1188 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 77 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 216 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0
0-3 km lapse rate: 2.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Red Oak (RDK), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Omaha radar (KOAX), 118 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:52 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2009 tornado in Iowa Every tornado in Iowa since 1950 Warnings in force in Iowa now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 23, 2009

18 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
March 23	12:45 PM MDT	EF0	Cherry, NE	0.1	10		$500
March 23	3:24 PM CDT	EF2	Holt, NE	0.2	10		$20,000
March 23	4:14 PM CDT	EF1	Bon Homme, SD	0.9	100		$30,000
March 23	4:15 PM CDT	EF1	Knox, NE	1.8	75
March 23	4:31 PM CDT	EF1	Lancaster, NE	2.4	50
March 23	4:36 PM CDT	EF2	Lancaster, NE	1.6	50
March 23	4:41 PM CDT	EF1	Lancaster, NE	10.8	50	5
March 23	4:52 PM CDT	EF1	Cass, NE	4.0	50	3
March 23	4:59 PM CDT	EF1	Cass, NE	10.7	880		$1.0 million
March 23	5:00 PM CDT	EF0	Sumner, KS	0.5	75
March 23	5:06 PM CDT	EF0	Cowley, KS	0.7	75		$10,000
March 23	5:15 PM CDT	EF0	Cowley, KS	0.5	75
March 23	5:35 PM CDT	EF0	Cowley, KS	0.5	75
March 23	6:03 PM CDT	EF2	Harrison, IA	8.6	440
March 23	6:33 PM CDT	EF1	Nemaha, KS	11.0	50
March 23	7:56 PM CDT	EF0	Montgomery, IA	1.9	440
March 23	8:10 PM CDT	EF0	Cass, IA	3.5	50		$250,000
March 23	8:23 PM CDT	EF0	Cass, IA	1.0	35		$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.