EF1 tornado, Liberty Center to Pleasantville, Iowa, April 4, 2023

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 4, 2023

Touchdown

6:43 PM CDT (23:43 UTC)

Lifted

7:06 PM CDT (00:06 UTC)

On the ground

23 minutes

Path length

15.3 miles (24.6 km)

Path width

130 yards (119 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

Counties

Warren and Marion counties

Touchdown point

41.199, -93.456

Lift-off point

41.355, -93.248

Record number

2304041743-01

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Initial tornado touchdown, dust swirls in field.

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

A trough across the Rockies underwent lee cyclogenesis, pulling a warm front north into Iowa in the afternoon. While a few storms developed along the warm front, most development was along the later cold front that moved across the area in the evening. These storms were frequent hail producers, with many reports of baseball sized hail or larger. A tornado also occurred which resulted in damage to a few homes, out buildings, and trees.

The tornado began in eastern Warren county east of Liberty Center. It tracked northeast for approximately 15 miles, ending in western Marion County just south of Pleasantville. Based on eyewitness accounts and video evidence, its likely this tornado was intermittent, and not a fully continuous path. This portions of the path is in Warren county with a separate entry for Marion county portion of the path. ||Damage along the tornado path occurred to several homes, outbuildings, and farm equipment. The most intense damage occurred to a home and garage which suffered significant damage to exterior walls and roofing structure. However, the home appeared to suffer a garage door failure and broken windows, which allowed the structure to pressurize and blow outward. Additionally, minor to moderate tree and shelter belt damage, along with several downed power poles occurred along the path.

This portion of the path is in Marion county after crossing into the county from Warren county. ||Damage along the tornado path occurred to several homes, outbuildings, and farm equipment. The most intense damage occurred to a home and garage which suffered significant damage to exterior walls and roofing structure. However, the home appeared to suffer a garage door failure and broken windows, which allowed the structure to pressurize and blow outward. Additionally, minor to moderate tree and shelter belt damage, along with several downed power poles occurred along the path.

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 19:48 UTC and running to 03:00 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 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 19:56 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.

Knoxville (OXV), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Des Moines radar (KDMX), 59 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:44 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 2023 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are

10 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.