EF1 tornado, Belmond, Iowa, June 12, 2013

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

June 12, 2013

Touchdown

4:19 PM CDT (21:19 UTC)

Lifted

4:32 PM CDT (21:32 UTC)

On the ground

13 minutes

Path length

5.0 miles (8.0 km)

Path width

125 yards (114 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$20,000

Crop damage

$5,000

County

Wright County

Touchdown point

42.849, -93.604

Lift-off point

42.818, -93.522

Record number

1306121519-01

48 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 155 mph.

• Debris in tree line 1 mile wnw.
• Another view of most intense path.
• Utility pole leaning in background.
• 10 " corn nub bed off adjacent.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Low pressure moved northeast out of north central Kansas into central Iowa by mid day on the 12th, then into northern Illinois by evening. A strong push of very warm and humid air pushed into the state south of the warm front extending east from the low. Temperatures warmed into the upper 80s to low 90s, with dewpoint temperatures in the low 70s. The airmass became unstable with CAPE rising to 2500 to 4000 J/kg by mid afternoon. Precipitable water values rose to around 1.8 inches by late afternoon. The atmosphere was strongly sheared with 35 to 55 kts of effective shear available. The lifted index fell to -7 to -9 C. A very strong cap was in place over much of the state, so in spite of the downdraft CAPE of 900 to 1400 J/kg across the state, it was not realized until very late in the event. CAPE in the -10 to -30 C layer of the atmosphere was in the 600 to 800 J/kg range. The freezing level was quite high, at 15,200 feet, limiting the hail potential through much of the event. During the evening, as the surface low pressure moved to the east of the area. Temperatures aloft fell rapidly and the character of the storms changed from supercellular to short line segments. They began producing hail with the largest in Bremer County east of Readlyn with golf ball to baseball size hail. The LCL was low, around 750 meters, making for a favorable environment for tornadic development. Seven tornadoes occurred during the afternoon hours in Wright and Franklin counties with the strongest tornado rating of EF3. Flooding occurred in north central Iowa in parts of Cerro Gordo and Worth County. Rainfall of 2 to 3 inches in under an hour occurred, resulting in flash flooding initially, then general flooding overnight. Numerous roads were flooded and closed. Rescue operations took place in Worth County as motorists were stranded by the rising water. The motorist hydroplaned off of a highway into a ditch full of water. After the rain ended, flooding continued through the night as standing water took several hours to recede.

Tornado formed on the east edge of town near the elementary school destroying an automated weather station. The storm then moved eastward before turning southeast over rural areas of Wright county.

This tornado occurred as the Belmond EF3 tornado was passing just northeast of town. The tornado tracked south-southeast across open farmland before dissipating. The track was very evident in satellite imagery taken shortly after the storm occurred. The location of the tornado in the storm, track direction and streaks in the satellite imagery all suggest that this tornado rotated anti-cyclonically.

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

3 minutes of warning. NWS DMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:16 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:51 UTC and running to 01:43 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 20:01 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), 123 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:17 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 2013 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are

20 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.