Tornadoes · United States · Iowa · 2020
EF1 tornado, Jesup to Fairbank, Iowa, March 28, 2020
From Jesup to Fairbank, this EF1 tornado ran 7.4 miles across Buchanan County on March 28, 2020, touching down at 6:15 PM CDT and reaching 50 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
- March 28, 2020
- Touchdown
- 6:15 PM CDT (23:15 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:25 PM CDT (23:25 UTC)
- On the ground
- 10 minutes
- Path length
- 7.4 miles (11.9 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Buchanan County
- Touchdown point
- 42.509, -92.081
- Lift-off point
- 42.603, -92.014
- Record number
- 2003281715-01
The damage survey
11 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ARX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 107 mph.
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
A strong low pressure system tracked from southwest Iowa to north central Iowa Saturday afternoon. Storms developed, moved across a warm front, and four tornadoes touched down over eastern Iowa and northwest Illinois. A few other storms brought small hail and damaging wind to portions of the region Saturday night.
A tornado touched down north of Jesup, Iowa about 615 PM CDT, March 28th. The tornado moved northeast and caused damage to outbuildings and a barn, and uprooted trees at a farmstead. The tornado was on the ground for about 10 minutes, and traveled a little more than 7 miles. The tornado was rated EF-1, with maximum winds around 90 mph.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
2 minutes of warning. NWS DVN issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:13 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:21 UTC and running to 00:39 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:21 UTC | 00:39 UTC | Tornado Watch | DVN |
| 23:03 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DVN |
| 23:13 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | DVN |
| 23:53 UTC | 00:21 UTC | Tornado 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:06 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
11.3 hours before the tornado, 165 km from the path. March 28, 2020.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -75567 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 695 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 72 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 11 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -128 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 164 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.0 K/km
Davenport, (KDVN), 00:00Z
0.7 hours after it, 165 km from the path. March 29, 2020.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 504 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -27 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 915 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 963 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 88 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 44 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 480 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 520 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.7
- Supercell composite
- 9.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.7 K/km
The surface observations
Independence (IIB), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:15 UTC | 53.6 | 52.5 | 110° 24 kt | 29 | 994.9 | BR |
| 21:35 UTC | 54.5 | 53.6 | 120° 22 kt | 27 | 994.6 | BR |
| 21:55 UTC | 57 | 55.6 | 110° 24 kt | 28 | 993.2 | |
| 22:15 UTC | 57.6 | 55.8 | 110° 20 kt | 25 | 993.2 | |
| 22:35 UTC | 58.5 | 56.5 | 120° 22 kt | 27 | 992.2 | |
| 22:55 UTC | 59 | 57 | 120° 18 kt | 26 | 991.5 | |
| 23:15 UTC | 59.7 | 57.7 | 120° 21 kt | 26 | 990.5 | |
| 23:35 UTC | 51.4 | 48.4 | 230° 12 kt | 40 | 991.9 | +RA |
| 23:55 UTC | 54.5 | 50 | 200° 19 kt | 26 | 992.9 | -RA |
| 00:15 UTC | 54.3 | 49.5 | 210° 8 kt | 993.2 | ||
| 00:35 UTC | 54.7 | 48.7 | 220° 7 kt | 993.2 | ||
| 00:55 UTC | 56.7 | 45 | 230° 10 kt | 993.2 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The La Crosse radar (KARX), 157 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:16 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:43 UTC | HAIL 0.25 | Strawberry Point | Clayton, IA | . |
| 20:43 UTC | HAIL 0.25 | Strawberry Point | Clayton, IA | |
| 22:37 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Se Dike | Grundy, IA | REPORT OF MACHINE SHED DESTROYED. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 22:40 UTC | TORNADO | 5 S Hudson | Black Hawk, IA | TORNADO ALSO CONFIRMED VIA SOCIAL MEDIA PHOTOS. LOCATION APPROXIMATE. |
| 22:50 UTC | TORNADO | 4 E Hudson | Black Hawk, IA | TRAINED SPOTTER REPORTED A GRAIN BIN AND OUTBUILDING DESTROYED. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 23:15 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Nnw Jesup | Buchanan, IA | A TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN NORTH OF JESUP AND MOVED NORTHEAST CAUSING DAMAGE TO OUTBUILDINGS, A BARN, AND UPROOTED TREES AT A FARMSTEAD. |
| 23:18 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Ssw Fairbank | Buchanan, IA | ON GROUND NEAR BAXTER AVE AND V56 RD. |
| 23:28 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 2 Se Otterville | Buchanan, IA | NOW SEEING PEA SIZE HAIL. |
| 23:29 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Nne Littleton | Buchanan, IA | LARGE TORNADO ON THE GROUND DOING DAMAGE. |
| 23:33 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 2 S Oelwein | Fayette, IA | FUNNEL CLOUD RAPIDLY DEVELOPING. POSSIBLE DEBRIS BUT UNSURE. |
| 23:33 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 W Oelwein | Fayette, IA | DAMAGE TO TREES AT RED GATE PARK ON WEST SIDE OF TOWN. POSSIBLE TORNADO. |
| 23:33 UTC | TORNADO | 1 W Oelwein | Fayette, IA | CONFIRMED WITH VIDEO. DAMAGE TO APARTMENT BUILDINGS AND TREES IN RED GATE PARK. |
| 23:33 UTC | TORNADO | 1 W Oelwein | Fayette, IA | CONFIRMED WITH VIDEO. DAMAGE TO APARTMENT BUILDINGS AND TREES IN RED GATE PARK. ENTIRE TORNADO WAS 630 TO 636 PM. |
| 23:40 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Se Maynard | Fayette, IA | CONFIRMED DAMAGE TO BARNS SOUTHEAST AND EAST OF MAYNARD. ENTIRE TORNADO WAS 640 TO 642 PM. |
| 23:44 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 W Oelwein | Fayette, IA | NUMEROUS TREES DOWN IN RED GATE PARK AREA. PROBABLE TORNADO BASED ON SPOTTER REPORTS. |
| 23:50 UTC | HAIL 0.5 | Wadena | Fayette, IA | . |
| 23:50 UTC | HAIL 0.5 | Wadena | Fayette, IA | |
| 00:00 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 1 Ssw Fayette | Fayette, IA | POSSIBLE TORNADO. REPORTED ROPE FUNNEL APPROXIMATELY 5 TO 7 MILES NORTHEAST OF MAYNARD, IA APPROXIMATELY 7 PM. |
| 00:15 UTC | HAIL 1 | Elkader | Clayton, IA | . |
| 00:15 UTC | HAIL 1 | Elkader | Clayton, IA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2020 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of March 28, 2020
20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 28 | 1:59 PM CDT | EF1 | Adams, IA | 7.5 | 115 | $125,000 | ||
| March 28 | 4:18 PM CDT | EF1 | Jackson, AR | 5.3 | 200 | $200,000 | ||
| March 28 | 4:26 PM CDT | EF0 | Marshall, IA | 1.3 | 75 | |||
| March 28 | 4:58 PM CDT | EF3 | Jonesboro tornado, AR | 12.5 | 600 | 22 | $300 million | |
| March 28 | 5:25 PM CDT | EF1 | Greene, AR | 3.0 | 100 | $300,000 | ||
| March 28 | 5:39 PM CDT | Unrated | Knox, IL | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| March 28 | 5:39 PM CDT | Unrated | Black Hawk, IA | 2.3 | 40 | |||
| March 28 | 5:49 PM CDT | EF0 | Black Hawk, IA | 2.1 | 115 | $75,000 | ||
| March 28 | 5:55 PM CDT | Unrated | Black Hawk, IA | 0.3 | 20 | |||
| March 28 | 6:30 PM CDT | EF1 | Fayette, IA | 3.9 | 140 | $165,000 | ||
| March 28 | 6:40 PM CDT | EF0 | Fayette, IA | 3.6 | 50 | $75,000 | ||
| March 28 | 7:43 PM CDT | Unrated | Henry, IL | 1.1 | 10 | |||
| March 28 | 7:58 PM CDT | EF2 | Henderson, KY | 16.8 | 500 | $500,000 | ||
| March 28 | 8:01 PM CDT | EF1 | Fulton, IL | 2.1 | 100 | $100,000 | ||
| March 28 | 8:18 PM CDT | EF2 | Henderson, KY to IN | 5.1 | 575 | 2 | $2.0 million | |
| March 28 | 8:20 PM CDT | EF1 | Whiteside, IL | 2.2 | 20 | |||
| March 28 | 8:25 PM CDT | EF1 | Dubuque, IA | 3.8 | 50 | |||
| March 28 | 8:35 PM CDT | EF1 | Grant, WI | 6.2 | 120 | $180,000 | ||
| March 28 | 8:58 PM CDT | EF1 | Peoria, IL | 3.3 | 50 | $300,000 | ||
| March 28 | 9:13 PM CDT | EF1 | Ogle, IL | 7.0 | 400 |
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.