EF1 tornado, Welton to Van Buren, Iowa, April 2, 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 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, as surveyed

EF1, preliminary

Date

April 2, 2026

Touchdown

5:25 PM CDT (22:25 UTC)

Lifted

5:43 PM CDT (22:43 UTC)

On the ground

18 minutes

Path length

18.1 miles (29.1 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Clinton and Jackson counties

Touchdown point

41.899, -90.626

Lift-off point

42.067, -90.367

Highest wind the damage implies

105 mph

Surveyed by

NWS DVN

The office's name for it

Preston

Survey last edited

May 20, 2026

Record number

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

An NWS Storm Damage Survey Team confirmed an EF1 tornado with

peak winds of 105 mph and maximum estimated width of 250 yards.

Damage included over ten snapped power poles, over ten

outbuildings and sheds destroyed, numerous homes with shingle

damage, and many trees with large sections snapped.

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

During the afternoon and evening of April 2nd, 2026, and early spring supercell thunderstorm event spread across eastern Iowa and northwest Illinois. This brought several swaths of damaging wind, large hail, and several tornadoes to both Iowa and Illinois.

An NWS Storm Damage Survey Team confirmed an EF1 tornado with peak winds of 105 mph and maximum estimated width of 250 yards. Damage included over ten snapped power poles, over ten outbuildings and sheds destroyed, numerous homes with shingle damage, and many trees with large sections snapped. This tornado path continued in Jackson County, Iowa.

An NWS Storm Damage Survey Team confirmed an EF1 tornado with peak winds of 105 mph and maximum estimated width of 250 yards. Damage included over ten snapped power poles, over ten outbuildings and sheds destroyed, numerous homes with shingle damage, and many trees with large sections snapped. This tornado path began in Clinton County, Iowa.

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

20 minutes of warning. NWS DVN issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:05 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:44 UTC and running to 23:50 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 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 Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 42 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:24 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

11 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.