EF1 tornado, Fisk to Nevinville, Iowa, August 2, 2015

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

August 2, 2015

Touchdown

6:21 PM CDT (23:21 UTC)

Lifted

6:57 PM CDT (23:57 UTC)

On the ground

36 minutes

Path length

5.0 miles (8.0 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

Crop damage

$35,000

Counties

Adair and Adams counties

Touchdown point

41.181, -94.578

Lift-off point

41.133, -94.521

Record number

1508021721-01

21 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Pear tree snapped. Several pine trees uprooted.
• Damage to 2 empty silos. Destruction of cinder block empty bins. Overturned small trailer.
• Trailer and pickup overturned.
• Tornado continued south and then turned east between the valley and top of the hill.

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

A cold front was making its way across the state from the north and northwest and lit up in the afternoon around 4:30 pm to 5:00 pm just outside of the metro and progressed south and southeastward as isolated to multicell storms. A tornado formed northwest of Creston, likely aided by interactions of the parent storm with the outflow from a nearby storm. Otherwise, storms primarily dropped heavy rainfall and quarter sized hail, with a couple reports of golf ball sized hail.

This very visible tornado meandered across Adair and Adams counties for over half an hour, traveling only 8.5 miles in that time. The worst damage occurred near the small hamlet of Williamson where multiple buildings were damaged. The tornado initially traveled to the SW-SE, but executed a cyclonic loop two miles south of Williamson and then traveled to the N-NE for the remainder of its life. This is segment is for Adair county, the tornado then continued into Adams county.

This segment is for Adams county. This very visible tornado meandered across Adair and Adams counties for over half an hour, traveling only 8.5 miles in that time. The worst damage occurred near the small hamlet of Williamson where multiple buildings were damaged. The tornado initially traveled to the SW-SE, but executed a cyclonic loop two miles south of Williamson and then traveled to the N-NE for the remainder of its life.

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

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:57 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), 94 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:19 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 2015 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are

4 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.