EF1 tornado, West Lake Park, Iowa, March 5, 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

March 5, 2022

Touchdown

8:37 PM CST (02:37 UTC)

Lifted

8:41 PM CST (02:41 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

4.1 miles (6.6 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Scott County

Touchdown point

41.535, -90.703

Lift-off point

41.569, -90.638

Record number

2203052037-01

9 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.

• start of path. several outbuildins damaged destroyed. boards impaled roof and barn walls. Small tree trunks.
• T2 point5. trees snapped. Roofing destroyed, became missles.

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

Severe thunderstorms tracked across all of eastern Iowa during the late afternoon and evening of Saturday March 5, 2022. Thunderstorms initially developed in southwest Iowa, and moved across central Iowa during the afternoon hours before reaching, our area after 600 PM. Initially, storms produced large hail and tornadoes over central Iowa, before the threat evolved more into damaging winds and tornadoes as storms moved into eastern Iowa and northwest Illinois. Winds around 60-75 MPH were reported from trained spotters and first responders, with confirmed reports of damage in some locations. EF-1 tornadoes occurred near Davenport and Vinton.

An EF-1 tornado produced intermittent damage along a roughly 4 mile path. The peak estimated winds were 90 to 95 MPH with a maximum width of 300 yards. The most significant damage was noted at a farmstead on 160th Street, east of 100th Avenue, where several outbuildings were damage or destroyed, and trees were damaged or snapped. Boards were also impaled into the roof and walls of a barn. Additional damage was noted at a farmstead on Utah Avenue north of Duck Creek. Several outbuildings were damaged with some losing roof panels and damaging other structures. Tree damage was noted with several trees uprooted or snapped. A wood plank was driven into the ground. Primarily intermittent tree damage was noted along the remainder of the track, with large branches down or trees snapped.

A NWS Storm Survey found that a brief weak tornado damaged a shed and some trees. The peak estimated wind speed is 65 MPH.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS DVN issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:35 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:10 UTC and running to 03:54 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:43 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 Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 10 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:37 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

18 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.