EF1 tornado, Manchester to Garber, Iowa, March 31, 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

March 31, 2023

Touchdown

5:32 PM CDT (22:32 UTC)

Lifted

5:47 PM CDT (22:47 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

11.1 miles (17.9 km)

Path width

90 yards (82 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Delaware and Clayton counties

Touchdown point

42.525, -91.372

Lift-off point

42.659, -91.252

Record number

2303311632-01

13 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 110 mph.

• Empty trailers and shipping containers overturned. Several laying to the southeast.
• Small garage had walls blown outward but door was open. Greenhouse damaged and large trees uprooted
• Large outbuildings damaged. Grain bin tossed into field across the road.
• Outbuildings destroyed. Trees uprooted and snapped.

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

A very strong system developed on the morning of March 31st and tracked across the state of Iowa. This system pulled unseasonably warm and moist air into the Midwest, which combined with a very favorable wind profile to create a volatile environment for severe thunderstorms. Discrete supercell thunderstorms occurred initially, but quickly transitioned into a QLCS mode. This system produced a historic tornado outbreak for the area, with a record 29 tornadoes on the day, including 13 rated EF-2, 1 rated EF-3, and 1 rated EF-4. This was the first EF-4 tornado in the NWS Quad Cities service area since 1995. 11 injuries were reported, with no known fatalities. In addition to the numerous tornadoes, there were many large hail and damaging wind reports. Maximum straight line thunderstorm winds were estimated at 80 to 90 mph.

A complex storm system brought severe weather to parts of northeast Iowa during the late afternoon of Friday, March 31, 2023. Reports of 1.0 to 1.25 inch hail were reported in Mitchell and Floyd Counties. The largest hail reported was half dollar in Stacyville (Mitchell County) and Colwell (Floyd County). An EF0 tornado entered rural Clayton County out of Delaware County near Edgewood and dissipated shortly thereafter, resulting in minimal damage.

An EF1 tornado moved from 3 miles southwest of Manchester through the southeast part of town. This tornado damaged to structures and trees along its path, with estimated peak winds around 110 mph.

This EF1 tornado developed southwest of Oneida, IA in Delaware County and moved northeast into Clayton County, IA, around 16:45 LST. This tornado damaged farm outbuildings and trees along its path, determined through ground surveys and Sentinel satellite data, with estimated peak winds around 110 mph. Scour marks on farms were also noted from Sentinel Satellite, as it crossed into Clayton County, about 3 miles west of Colesburg (see NWS LaCrosse StormData for details of tornado in Clayton County).

A tornado developed in Delaware County, crossed into Clayton County between Edgewood and Colesburg, and crossed Horseshoe Road before dissipating.

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS DVN issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:26 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:47 UTC and running to 23:35 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 19:54 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), 125 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:30 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

126 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 127 of them

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.