EF1 tornado, Meroa to Riceville, Iowa, April 12, 2022

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

April 12, 2022

Touchdown

10:57 PM CDT (03:57 UTC)

Lifted

11:00 PM CDT (04:00 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.8 miles (4.5 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$110,000

County

Mitchell County

Touchdown point

43.324, -92.705

Lift-off point

43.342, -92.655

Record number

2204122157-01

40 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ARX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 132 mph.

• A couple sustained injuries while sheltering in their basement from the storm.
• Observed in satellite data. Unable to assess trees in detail.
• Noted in satellite imagery. Unable to assess further.

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

Severe storms moved across northeast Iowa during the evening of April 12th. These storms produced five tornadoes and damaging wind gusts as high as 72 mph in Nora Springs (Floyd County). EF1 tornadoes occurred near Brownville (Mitchell County) and south of Riceville in both Mitchell and Howard Counties with both tornadoes damaging farm buildings and trees. EF0 tornadoes touched down in northern Floyd County into southern Mitchell County west of Orchard, near Saratoga (Howard County), and close to Ridgeway (Winneshiek County) with damage limited to trees and a few farm buildings. The Governor of Iowa issued a disaster proclamation for Howard, Mitchell, and Winneshiek Counties.

This EF0 tornado developed in Floyd County and moved into Mitchell County southwest of Osage. The tornado moved to the northeast across rural parts of southern Mitchell County before dissipating south of Osage. Damage was primarily limited to trees.

This EF1 tornado developed southwest of Brownville and proceeded to move northeast through the small community before dissipating northeast of town. Farm outbuildings and trees were damaged along the path.

This EF1 tornado developed south of New Haven and tracked northeast before moving into Howard County, passing south of Riceville. Along the path, numerous farm buildings, grain bins, and trees were damaged or destroyed.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:54 UTC and running to 04:37 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 01:01 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), 132 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:55 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 2022 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are

27 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.