EF1 tornado, Garry Owen to Bernard, Iowa, June 20, 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

June 20, 2021

Touchdown

8:06 PM CDT (01:06 UTC)

Lifted

8:12 PM CDT (01:12 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

3.4 miles (5.4 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Dubuque and Jackson counties

Touchdown point

42.280, -90.850

Lift-off point

42.309, -90.797

Record number

2106201906-01

7 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 100 mph.

• Large tree branches snapped off.

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

Severe thunderstorms developed across Iowa, Illinois and Missouri on Sunday, June 20th. Early in the morning, an MCS from the night before moved into our area along a stationary boundary and brought widespread rain showers to the area. This died off early in the day and then some clear skies moved in, providing some surface heating ahead of an approaching cold front. Ahead of this front, several discrete supercell thunderstorms formed, which posed a threat for tornadoes, hail, and severe wind gusts. Later in the day. these supercells generally grew upscale into a line of thunderstorms with embedded supercell structures. A tornado was spotted near Bernard, Iowa and lead to some damage to trees and farm outbuildings. Otherwise, severe winds reports and a few hail reports resulted from these storms. The severe threat continued eastward, and heavily impacted some suburbs of Chicago.

A tornado developed just west of Garry Owen in northwest Jackson County, and moved northeast along an intermittent 3 mile path through farm fields, lifting east of Bernard in southern Dubuque County. The tornado caused tree damage, and extensive damage to outbuildings at 4 farmsteads. The tornado was rated EF1, with maximum winds estimated at 90 to 100 mph, and was on the ground for about 6 minutes. There were no injuries. Assistance provided by Dubuque and Jackson County Emergency Management is much appreciated.

A tornado developed just west of Garry Owen in northwest Jackson County, and moved northeast along an intermittent 3 mile path through farm fields, lifting east of Bernard in southern Dubuque County. The tornado caused tree damage, and extensive damage to outbuildings at 4 farmsteads. The tornado was rated EF1, with maximum winds estimated at 90 to 100 mph, and was on the ground for about 6 minutes. There were no injuries. Assistance provided by Dubuque and Jackson County Emergency Management is much appreciated.

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

18 minutes of warning. NWS DVN issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:48 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 21:02 UTC and running to 03:36 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:25 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.

Dubuque (DBQ), 15 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), 79 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:05 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

7 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.