Tornadoes · United States · Iowa · 2024

EF0 tornado, Pershing to Durham, Iowa, May 7, 2024

From Pershing to Durham, this EF0 tornado ran 5.0 miles across Marion County on May 7, 2024, touching down at 1:37 AM CDT and reaching 80 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $8,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
May 7, 2024
Touchdown
1:37 AM CDT (06:37 UTC)
Lifted
1:43 AM CDT (06:43 UTC)
On the ground
6 minutes
Path length
5.0 miles (8.0 km)
Path width
80 yards (73 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$8,000
County
Marion County
Touchdown point
41.255, -93.064
Lift-off point
41.300, -92.989
Record number
2405070037-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) swept across Iowa late on May 6th and into the early morning hours of May 7th. The line was strongest in southern Iowa where the environment was more supportive of severe weather. Damaging winds and a few embedded tornadoes occurred as the line swept across the state.

The emergency manager had a path of damage across central Marion County to the southeast of Knoxville. The tornado remained mostly in rural fields with damage occurring at a couple of farmsteads, mainly to trees.

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

The surface observations

Knoxville (OXV), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Des Moines radar (KDMX), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:34 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2024 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 7, 2024

52 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 71:05 AM CDTEF1Okfuskee, OK2.8200$15,000
May 71:12 AM CDTEF0Warren, IA3.180$50,000
May 71:35 AM CDTEF0Jasper, IA0.130$25,000
May 71:43 AM CDTEF1Randolph, MO8.3250
May 71:44 AM CDTEF0Randolph, MO2.3400
May 72:23 AM CDTEF2Adair, OK to AR11.7800$75,000
May 72:28 AM CDTEF0Pulaski, MO9.8150$16,000
May 72:43 AM CDTEF1Crawford, AR5.7900$30,000
May 72:43 AM CDTEF1Crawford, AR9.21,100$500,000
May 72:48 AM CDTEF1Crawford, AR0.6100$50,000
May 72:55 AM CDTEF1Washington, AR1.8150$35,000
May 72:55 AM CDTEF1Franklin, AR3.91,200$30,000
May 73:08 AM CDTEF1Washington, AR2.8550$30,000
May 73:44 AM CDTEF0Crawford, MO0.775
May 73:45 AM CDTEF1Franklin, MO0.3150
May 74:21 AM CDTEF0Saint Charles, MO2.250
May 72:05 PM CDTEF0Boone, IL to WI14.350$60,000
May 72:18 PM CDTEF1Walworth, WI1.050$100,000
May 75:11 PM EDTEF1Cass, MI11.7950
May 75:41 PM EDTEF2Saint Joseph, MI19.59501
May 75:55 PM EDTEF2Kalamazoo, MI10.930012$50 million
May 76:07 PM EDTEF1Branch, MI1.1100
May 76:11 PM EDTUnratedSteuben, IN0.11
May 77:47 PM EDTUnratedRush, IN0.830
May 77:50 PM EDTEF2Mercer, OH8.1400$50,000
May 78:02 PM EDTEF0Shelby, IN0.850$30,000
May 78:03 PM EDTEF1Rush, IN4.675$47,000
May 78:05 PM EDTEF1Rush, IN0.230$30,000
May 78:08 PM EDTEF1Fayette, IN2.9150$50,000
May 78:09 PM EDTEF1Paulding, OH6.2300$200,000
May 78:16 PM EDTEF0Paulding, OH0.525$10,000
May 78:20 PM EDTEF2Mercer, OH6.4300$350,000
May 78:24 PM EDTEF1Darke, OH11.7800$500,000
May 78:25 PM EDTEF0Decatur, IN4.5100$50,000
May 78:42 PM EDTEF0Crawford, IN0.280
May 78:54 PM EDTUnratedPutnam, OH0.15
May 77:56 PM CDTEF1Franklin, IN to OH8.0300$10,000
May 79:20 PM EDTEF1Butler, OH2.4200$200,000
May 79:23 PM EDTEF0Clark, IN1.260
May 79:57 PM EDTEF0Butler, OH0.380$20,000
May 710:05 PM EDTEF0Warren, OH0.3100$15,000
May 710:08 PM EDTEF1Warren, OH2.6150$200,000
May 710:14 PM EDTEF0Warren, OH0.450$20,000
May 710:15 PM EDTEF1Warren, OH2.7350$500,000
May 710:27 PM EDTEF0Warren, OH0.5150$50,000
May 710:27 PM EDTEF0Clinton, OH1.380$10,000
May 711:49 PM EDTEF0Licking, OH3.0100$50,000
May 712:02 AM EDTEF1Muskingum, OH0.4128$100,000
May 712:17 AM EDTEF1Coshocton, OH0.1197$100,000
May 711:54 PM CDTEF2Hancock, OH to WV, PA15.32001$10,000
May 712:30 AM CDTEF2Garland, AR12.2600
May 71:49 AM EDTEF1Allegheny, PA0.2150$75,000

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.