Tornadoes · United States · Iowa · 2025

Unrated tornado, Crab Town, Iowa, July 10, 2025

This Unrated tornado ran 0.1 miles across Jackson County on July 10, 2025, touching down at 6:44 PM CDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 mph

    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. Unratedthis tornado

    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
Unrated
Date
July 10, 2025
Touchdown
6:44 PM CDT (23:44 UTC)
Lifted
6:45 PM CDT (23:45 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Jackson County
Touchdown point
42.200, -90.840
Lift-off point
42.200, -90.840
Record number
2507101744-01

The damage survey

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DVN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 70 mph.

  • Very brief EFU tornado based on storm chaser video footage. Looked to be multiple vortex in nature.

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

What the Weather Service recorded

During the evening of July 10th, a line of thunderstorms developed and moved across eastern Iowa. These storms produced isolated large hail and damaging wind gusts in Johnson and Clinton Counties. Based on a video, an EF-U tornado occurred in Jackson county. These storms also produced heavy rain, mainly along and north of interstate 80. Rainfall amounts of 2 to 4.50 inches were reported across the area. This rain led to flash flooding in Clinton, Dubuque, Davenport near the Mississippi River and Sabula.

Based on storm chaser video, a brief multiple vortex tornado occurred. This tornado is rated as an EF-U.

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

The warnings

35 minutes of warning. NWS DVN issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:09 UTC, 35 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:09 UTC00:00 UTCTornado WarningDVN
23:49 UTC02:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningDVN
00:16 UTC00:41 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDVN
00:17 UTC06:00 UTCFlood WatchDVN
00:42 UTC05:01 UTCFlash Flood WarningDVN

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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 air that afternoon

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.

Davenport, (KDVN), 12:00Z

11.7 hours before the tornado, 70 km from the path. July 10, 2025.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2025-07-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 562 joules per kilogram, CIN -90, lifted condensation level 1007 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2025-07-10The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 132 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 14 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
562 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-90 J/kg
Surface CAPE
268 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1007 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
132 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
210 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Davenport, (KDVN), 00:00Z

0.3 hours after it, 70 km from the path. July 11, 2025.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 2025-07-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2407 joules per kilogram, CIN -3, lifted condensation level 1108 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 2025-07-11The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 91 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
2407 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-3 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3767 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1108 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
91 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
194 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.8
Supercell composite
12.9
0-3 km lapse rate
7.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 69 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
23:44 UTCTORNADO1 Ne CantonJackson, IACorrects previous tornado report from 1 NW Ironhills. Video of a brief touchdown, no damage observed.
23:44 UTCTORNADO1 Nw IronhillsJackson, IAVideo of a brief touchdown, no damage observed.
23:49 UTCRAIN 1.752 Wnw DubuqueDubuque, IAOne hour total.
00:16 UTCRAIN 1.45LoreDubuque, IA
00:20 UTCFLASH FLOOD1 Ene DubuqueDubuque, IAReports of street flooding through parts of the downtown area, with a car stranded in water near the 17th and Locust Street interchange. Creeks in the area are also near bankful. Waters are slowly starting to recede as t
00:22 UTCRAIN 2.951 Nw DubuqueDubuque, IA
00:30 UTCRAIN 2.071 W DubuqueDubuque, IArainfall total from 6-730p.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2025 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 10, 2025

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 105:14 PM EDTEF0Jasper, SC0.660

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.