Tornadoes · United States · Iowa · 2018
EF1 tornado, Monti, Iowa, June 9, 2018
This EF1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Buchanan County on June 9, 2018, touching down at 9:36 PM CDT and reaching 20 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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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
- EF1
- Date
- June 9, 2018
- Touchdown
- 9:36 PM CDT (02:36 UTC)
- Lifted
- 9:37 PM CDT (02:37 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 20 yards (18 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Buchanan County
- Touchdown point
- 42.442, -91.623
- Lift-off point
- 42.443, -91.622
- Record number
- 1806092036-01
The damage survey
5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DVN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.
- fam outbuilding and trees snapped. small shed destroyed.
- pine tree broken off half way up
- roof lifted up and garage door sprayed. fuel tank moved
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
After an early morning flash flood event in eastern Iowa, with some damaging winds near the Mississippi River, a line of slow moving supercell thunderstorms moved southeast from northern Iowa, into portions of eastern Iowa the evening of June 9th. Damaging winds, large hail, a few tornadoes, and torrential rain accompanied the storms. This event brought flash flooding, and led to some minor to moderate river flooding on the Cedar, Iowa, and Wapsipinicon Rivers.
An EF-1 tornado touched down southeast of Winthrop, Iowa. A house was damaged and the garage door failed, which allowed the roof to come off. Nearby tree damage was also surveyed.
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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 00:44 UTC and running to 07:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19:31 UTC | 00:44 UTC | Tornado Watch | DVN |
| 22:00 UTC | 07:14 UTC | Flash Flood Watch | DVN |
| 00:44 UTC | 07:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | DVN |
| 00:51 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DVN |
| 01:44 UTC | 02:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DVN |
| 01:50 UTC | 02:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | DVN |
| 02:10 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DVN |
| 02:17 UTC | 08:15 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | DVN |
| 02:45 UTC | 03:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DVN |
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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:07 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.
Davenport, (KDVN), 00:00Z
2.6 hours before the tornado, 130 km from the path. June 10, 2018.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1247 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -17 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2787 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1107 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 8 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 39 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 142 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.2
- Supercell composite
- 1.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.9 K/km
Davenport, (KDVN), 12:00Z
9.4 hours after it, 130 km from the path. June 10, 2018.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 351 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -128 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 594 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 52 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 24 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 257 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 359 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 8.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.8 K/km
The radar
The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 126 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:33 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | West Union | Fayette, IA | TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN. TIME ESTIMATE FROM RADAR. |
| 00:14 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | West Union | Fayette, IA | REPORTS OF POWER LINES AND BRANCHES DOWN |
| 00:27 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Nnw Fayette | Fayette, IA | LARGE BRANCHES AND POWER LINES DOWN |
| 01:35 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | 1 N Independence | Buchanan, IA | TREES AT ABOUT A 45 DEGREE ANGLE, NO TREE DAMAGE VISIBILE. |
| 01:49 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | 1 E Independence | Buchanan, IA | MOSTLY PENNY OR SMALLER SIZED WITH SOME NICKEL SIZED STONES. |
| 02:02 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 Ese Independence | Buchanan, IA | |
| 02:18 UTC | HAIL 0.5 | E Independence | Buchanan, IA | DIME TO HALF INCH HAIL IN INDEPENDENCE |
| 02:18 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 Ne Independence | Buchanan, IA | |
| 02:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 S Winthrop | Buchanan, IA | ROOF BLOWN OFF OF A HOME. RELAYED BY THE EM. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 02:20 UTC | TSTM WND GST 70 | 5 E Shellsburg | Benton, IA | ESTIMATED WIND GUST OF 70 MPH AND QUARTER HAIL,. |
| 02:21 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 3 Sw Maynard | Fayette, IA | WATER OVER MULTIPLE ROADS BETWEEN 100TH STREET AND HIGHWAY 3 SOUTHWEST OF MAYNARD. |
| 02:36 UTC | TORNADO | 6 Se Winthrop Ia | Buchanan, IA | AN EF-1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN SOUTHEAST OF WINTHROP, IA. A HOUSE WAS DAMAGED. GARAGE DOOR FAILED AND ROOF CAME OFF IN THE WIND. SOME TREE DAMAGE WAS ALSO NOTED. THE DURATION OF THE TORNADO EVENT WAS 1 MINUTE. |
| 02:48 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Independence | Buchanan, IA | FLOODING IN LOW LYING AREAS AND ROAD CLOSURES TAKING PLACE ON THE EAST SIDE OF INDEPENDENCE. |
| 02:50 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | Winthrop | Buchanan, IA | |
| 03:00 UTC | TSTM WND GST 65 | 2 Sw Masonville | Buchanan, IA | |
| 03:01 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 3.04 | 1 E Independence | Buchanan, IA | |
| 03:03 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 2 Sw Maynard | Fayette, IA | WATER OVER HIGHWAY 150 BETWEEN OELWEIN AND MAYNARD. |
| 03:03 UTC | HAIL 0.25 | 2 W Cedar Rapids | Linn, IA | VIA FACEBOOK. |
| 03:09 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 N Manchester | Delaware, IA | MULTIPLE TREES SNAPPED OFF ABOUT HALFWAY UP ALONG HIGHWAY 13 NORTH OF MANCHESTER. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 03:15 UTC | HAIL 0.25 | Center Point | Linn, IA | |
| 03:15 UTC | HAIL 0.25 | Manchester | Delaware, IA | |
| 03:16 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 1.25 | 4 W Cedar Rapids | Linn, IA | STILL RAINING. THE DURATION OF THE HEAVY RAIN EVENT WAS 30 MINUTES. |
| 03:29 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 3 S Winthrop Golf Cours | Buchanan, IA | GRAVEL ROADS COVERED IN RUNNING WATER. |
| 03:46 UTC | TSTM WND GST 70 | Toddville | Linn, IA | RELAYED BY LOCAL BROADCAST MEDIA. |
| 04:00 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 5.2 | Maynard | Fayette, IA | |
| 04:05 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 2 | 1 Nnw Monticello | Jones, IA | STILL RAINING. |
| 04:05 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 2 | 1 Nnw Monticello | Jones, IA | STILL RAINING. THE DURATION OF THE HEAVY RAIN EVENT WAS 30 MINUTES. |
| 04:09 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 N Manchester | Delaware, IA | MULTIPLE TREES SNAPPED OFF ABOUT HALFWAY UP ALONG HIGHWAY 13 NORTH OF MANCHESTER. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 04:09 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 1 N Manchester | Delaware, IA | ESTIMATED THAT WATER WAS ABOUT A FOOT DEEP ON THE ROAD WITH THE WATER OVER THE CURB AND INTO THE GRASS. |
| 04:09 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 3.5 | 1 N Manchester | Delaware, IA | 1 HOUR RAINFALL. |
| 04:18 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 3.32 | 2 Ene Hazleton | Buchanan, IA | 7 AM TO 11 PM TOTAL. ROADS IN THE AREA WERE WASHED OUT. |
| 04:38 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 4.5 | Fairbank | Buchanan, IA | RELAYED BY BROADCAST MEDIA. |
| 04:50 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 2.87 | 4 W Cedar Rapids | Linn, IA | UPDATED AMOUNT SINCE 9:15 PM. STILL RAINING. |
| 04:50 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 2.87 | 4 W Cedar Rapids | Linn, IA | UPDATED AMOUNT SINCE 9:15 PM. STILL RAINING. THE DURATION OF THE HEAVY RAIN EVENT WAS 24 HOURS. |
| 05:19 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 6 | Masonville | Delaware, IA | PUBLIC ESTIMATED OF 6 INCHES OF RAIN IN TWO HOURS. RELAYED BY LOCAL BROADCAST MEDIA. |
| 05:28 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 2 Ene Hazleton | Buchanan, IA | REPORTED MULTIPLE ROADS CLOSED IN NORTHERN BUCHANAN COUNTY. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 9, 2018
5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.