Unrated tornado, Archer, Iowa, April 13, 2026

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.

Rating, as surveyed

Unrated, preliminary

Date

April 13, 2026

Touchdown

6:30 PM CDT (23:30 UTC)

Lifted

6:35 PM CDT (23:35 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

0.9 miles (1.4 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

O'Brien County

Touchdown point

43.138, -95.712

Lift-off point

43.147, -95.725

Surveyed by

NWS FSD

The office's name for it

20260413

Survey last edited

April 14, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

Locations estimated by video and first hand account.

Written by NWS FSD in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FSD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU.

• Estimated starting point based on first hand account and radar.
• Estimated ending point based on first hand account and radar.

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

At late afternoon, considerable moisture focused near a strong warm front from low pressure across northeastern Nebraska through northwest Iowa. Climatologically significant mid-level lapse rates produced a strong capping inversion which gradually weakened north of the warm front. Storms initiated with effective deep-layer shear from 40 to 50 knots and quickly became severe hail producers north of the warm front across southeast South Dakota into southwest Minnesota during the late afternoon, with additional storms developing in proximity to the surface wave across northwest Iowa. One of these latter storms produced two weak tornadoes across northwest Iowa.

An eyewitness observed a tornado develop 2 miles northeast of Archer south of 350th Street in an open field. The tornado tracked northwest slowly over the next five minutes through open fields. After crossing Pierce Avenue, the tornado dissipated. There was no known damage, resulting in an EFU rating. The location, track, and a maximum path width of 25 yards was estimated from video.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 21:41 UTC and running to 02:14 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 0.02 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.

The Sioux Falls radar (KFSD), 96 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:27 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 2026 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are

15 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.