EF1 tornado, Rudd to Floyd Crossing, Iowa, July 14, 2021

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

July 14, 2021

Touchdown

5:34 PM CDT (22:34 UTC)

Lifted

6:02 PM CDT (23:02 UTC)

On the ground

28 minutes

Path length

12.0 miles (19.3 km)

Path width

60 yards (55 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$60,000

Crop damage

$10,000

County

Floyd County

Touchdown point

43.095, -92.966

Lift-off point

43.106, -92.728

Record number

2107141634-01

14 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ARX and NWS DMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 90 mph.

• Medium size tree along the road that was broke off about 10 feet up. Location estimated. Via Brian Hess (email/drone video)

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

Two tornadoes skipped across portions of northeast Iowa during the late afternoon of July 14th. The first tornado impacted areas between Rockford (Floyd County) and Rudd (Floyd County) and to the east before dissipating northwest of Charles City (Floyd County). The most extensive damage occurred to a hog containment building near the end of its path. This tornado was rated an EF-1. The second tornado caused damage in Oelwein (Fayette County) and locations southwest of the city. This tornado ripped an air handler unit off a restaurant and caused damage at the high school football stadium. This tornado was rated an EF-0. The Governor of Iowa issued a disaster proclamation that included Fayette County.

An EF1 tornado developed between Rudd and Rockford and moved east before dissipating northwest of Charles City. The roof of a home near Rockford sustained some damage. Near the end of the path, a hog confinement building was heavily damaged, trees were downed and windows blown out of a house. Otherwise, the damage was limited to crops.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS ARX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:33 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:36 UTC and running to 02:00 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:48 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 La Crosse radar (KARX), 156 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:36 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 2021 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are

25 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.