EF2 tornado, La Motte, Iowa, July 11, 2025

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

July 11, 2025

Touchdown

4:54 PM CDT (21:54 UTC)

Lifted

4:57 PM CDT (21:57 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.9 miles (4.7 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Jackson County

Touchdown point

42.300, -90.620

Lift-off point

42.320, -90.570

Record number

2507111554-01

14 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DVN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 120 mph.

• Roof and front of building flipped the east.
• Uprooted tree facing north along with a lot of branches snapped.
• Shingle damage on west and north aspect of roof.
• Many trees with trunks snapped at location.

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

On July 11th, a line of severe thunderstorms moved across eastern Iowa and produced damaging straight-line winds, tornadoes and heavy rain. Rainfall totals of 2 to 4 inches fell in a few hours across the Quad Cities, on top of heavy rain from the previous night and caused major flash flooding in Davenport. A Considerable Flash Flood warning was issued at 5:26 PM followed by a Flash Flood Emergency at 6:16 PM.

Evidence of a multiple vortex tornado EF-2 tornado occurred across northern Jackson County. The tornado started north of La Motte where it damaged the roof of an agriculture industry building. As it tracked east the tornado did damage to trees until halfway through its 2.6 mile path where the most intense damage was found. A large farm building lost it's entire roof, along with half of it's walls. Roof sheet metal was found north, south and east of the structure. Insulation from the roof was found on the north, south and east side of the remaining walls. A metal power pole was bent along with a few other wooden poles snap. All this damage supported an EF-2 tornado. As the tornado moved east it destroyed two more farm buildings, numerous trees and the roof of a house.

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

45 minutes of warning. NWS DVN issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:09 UTC, 45 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:57 UTC and running to 01:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:45 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.

Dubuque (DBQ), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 78 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:56 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 2025 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are

13 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.