Tornadoes · United States · Iowa · 2019

Unrated tornado, Fairview to Wapsipinicon Sp, Iowa, June 9, 2019

From Fairview to Wapsipinicon Sp, this Unrated tornado ran 1.1 miles across Jones County on June 9, 2019, touching down at 5:14 PM CDT and reaching 10 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.

  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 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. Unratedthis tornado

    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
Unrated
Date
June 9, 2019
Touchdown
5:14 PM CDT (22:14 UTC)
Lifted
5:17 PM CDT (22:17 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
1.1 miles (1.7 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Jones County
Touchdown point
42.069, -91.291
Lift-off point
42.064, -91.272
Record number
1906091614-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms developed ahead of a cold front Sunday afternoon across portions of eastern Iowa. The storms were weak, but still were able to produce three brief landspout tornadoes over the region. Additionally, brief heavy rain and wind gusts up to 50 mph were seen with the stronger storms.

A weak landspout tornado moved through rural areas south of Anamosa, IA. Evidence for the tornado is through photos from emergency management, with no damage observed along its path to assign a rating.

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

The warnings

40 minutes of warning. NWS DVN issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:34 UTC, 40 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:34 UTC22:15 UTCTornado WarningDVN
22:06 UTC23:00 UTCTornado WarningDVN

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:47 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), 12:00Z

10.2 hours before the tornado, 82 km from the path. June 9, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2019-06-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 7 joules per kilogram, CIN -104, lifted condensation level 818 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
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.
HodographHodograph, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2019-06-09The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 41 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 10 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
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
7 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-104 J/kg
Surface CAPE
13 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
818 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
41 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
26 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Davenport, (KDVN), 00:00Z

1.8 hours after it, 82 km from the path. June 10, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 2019-06-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 12 joules per kilogram, CIN -114, lifted condensation level 1440 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
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.
HodographHodograph, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 2019-06-10The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 56 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
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
12 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-114 J/kg
Surface CAPE
283 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1440 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
56 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
89 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:13 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
20:53 UTCTORNADO3 Nw MasonvilleBuchanan, IASTART TIME 353 PM START LOCATION 3.5 NE WINTHROP IA END TIME 416 PM END LOCATION 4 SW OF MANCHESTER EVIDENCE OF TORNADO THROUGH PHOTO AND VIDEO NO DAMAGE ALONG PATH.
21:24 UTCTORNADO2 Nne Central CityLinn, IACORRECTS PREVIOUS TORNADO REPORT FROM 2 NNE CENTRAL CITY. START TIME 424 PM START LOCATION 2 NE OF CENTRAL CITY END TIME 437 PM END LOCATION 6 E OF CENTRAL CITY EVIDENCE OF TORNADO THROUGH PHOTO AND VIDEO NO DAMAGE ALONG
21:24 UTCTORNADO2 Nne Central CityLinn, IASTART TIME 424 PM START LOCATION 2 NE OF CENTRAL CITY END TIME 437 PM END LOCATION 6 E OF CENTRAL CITY EVIDENCE OF TORNADO THROUGH PHOTO AND VIDEO NO DAMAGE ALONG PATH.
22:14 UTCTORNADO3 Ssw AnamosaJones, IAEVIDENCE OF BRIEF LANDSPOUT TORNADO VIA PHOTOS FROM EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT, NO DAMAGE ALONG PATH.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 9, 2019

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 93:53 PM CDTUnratedBuchanan, IA7.310
June 94:24 PM CDTUnratedLinn, IA6.410
June 95:24 PM CDTEF2Coryell, TX1.6500$500,000
June 96:34 PM CDTEF0Williamson, TX0.750$5,000

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.