EF2 tornado, Pleasantgrove to Huron, Iowa, June 15, 2019

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

June 15, 2019

Touchdown

8:24 PM CDT (01:24 UTC)

Lifted

8:28 PM CDT (01:28 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.3 miles (2.1 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Des Moines County

Touchdown point

41.055, -91.052

Lift-off point

41.060, -91.028

Record number

1906151924-01

23 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DVN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 121 mph.

• House shifted off foundation

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

Severe thunderstorms tracked across portions of eastern Iowa, northeast Missouri, and northwest Illinois Saturday evening, June 15, bringing damaging winds, heavy downpours, frequent lightning, large hail, and a tornado. Many areas saw winds between 30-50 mph during the evening hours, with higher winds of 60-70 mph reported in Iowa and Benton counties in Iowa. ||The storms produced three tornadoes in Des Moines County (west of Mediapolis, IA and south of Oakville, IA) between 7:50 pm and 8:30 pm.||Two tornadoes south of Oakville were rated EF2 and downed numerous trees, severely damaged a house displacing it off its foundation, destroyed outbuildings, and downed power poles.||The tornado west of Mediapolis remained in an open field with no observable damage to assign a rating.||Another tornado occurred just northeast of Keithsburg in Mercer County Illinois. This tornado was rated EF1.

A tornado with 70 mph peak winds touched down in an open field west of Mediapolis, IA. It lasted for about 2 minutes. There was no observable damage from which the NWS could assign a rating.

An EF2 tornado with 120 mph peak winds touched down doing damage to trees and the roof of a house. As it moved east it, strengthened causing more tree damage and siding damage to a house. The tornado then reached peak strength, destroying a farm outbuilding, throwing two pieces of farming equipment 40 yards, and then moving a pickup truck through the air approx 20 yards. A house at this location suffered major damage, as it was moved off it's foundation. All the windows were blown out, a bolted down garage was destroyed and lofted. Three power poles were also snapped at this location. The tornado then turned northeast, destroying numerous trees. Once it came down the bluff, it hit power lines causing them to lean over. The tornado ended shortly after this.

A second EF2 tornado with winds to 120 mph, touched down just east of the first one initially damaging trees and the roof of a mobile home. As it moved east, it strengthened as it went down the bluff. Here it destroyed a pig farm building along with taking down a wooden high power transmission line. One other house along with numerous trees sustained damage from the tornado.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS DVN issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:24 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:41 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 00:10 UTC and running to 02:55 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 01:46 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.

Burlington (BRL), 32 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 73 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:24 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 2019 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are

28 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.