Tornadoes · United States · Iowa · 2026
EF1 tornado, Washington County, Iowa, August 7, 2026
This EF1 tornado ran 1.4 miles across Washington County on August 7, 2026, touching down at 7:43 PM CDT and reaching 175 yards wide. It killed nobody.
Preliminary. This is NWS DVN's damage survey, filed in the Damage Assessment Toolkit. The rating, the path and the casualties are the survey's and can change while it is revised. The Storm Prediction Center compiles the official record of 2026 from these surveys and publishes it in the spring of 2027; this page moves to that tornado's permanent address when it does.
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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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 survey
- Rating, as surveyed
- EF1, preliminary
- Date
- August 7, 2026
- Touchdown
- 7:43 PM CDT (00:43 UTC)
- Lifted
- 7:45 PM CDT (00:45 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 1.4 miles (2.3 km)
- Path width
- 175 yards (160 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Washington County
- Touchdown point
- 41.220, -91.939
- Lift-off point
- 41.215, -91.913
- Highest wind the damage implies
- 95 mph
- Surveyed by
- NWS DVN
- Survey last edited
- August 12, 2026
- Record number
- None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.
What the survey found
An EF1 tornado with max wind speeds of 95 MPH entered the west end of Rubio and tracked across the entire town ending east of town at the end of it's 1.4 mile long path. One house had damage to shingles and a carport was completely destroyed. Gravel caused damage to the north side of the house while the carport and a basketball hoop was thrown to the west. Some trees were snapped as well in town. Numerous branches were down throughout town. To the east damage to crops were noted.
Written by NWS DVN in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.
The warnings
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 18:43 UTC and running to 03:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 08:48 UTC | 14:00 UTC | Dense Fog Advisory | DVN |
| 18:43 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | DVN |
| 00:00 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DVN |
| 00:38 UTC | 01:31 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DVN |
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 19:25 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), 00:00Z
0.7 hours before the tornado, 127 km from the path. August 8, 2026.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2103 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -6 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2759 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 918 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 37 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 4 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -18 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -47 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- -0.2
- Supercell composite
- -1.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.2 K/km
The radar
The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 120 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:45 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:02 UTC | HAIL 2.75 | 1 Nne Millersburg | Iowa, IA | Golfball to baseball sized hail. |
| 00:13 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | North English | Iowa, IA | Media relayed report of 1-3 inch hail in rural North English. Time estimated from radar. |
| 00:25 UTC | HAIL 1.5 | North English | Iowa, IA | |
| 00:43 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Keota | Keokuk, IA | Golf ball sized hail reported. Time estimated from radar. |
| 00:43 UTC | TORNADO | Rubio | Washington, IA | An EF1 tornado with max wind speeds of 95 MPH entered the west end of Rubio and tracked across the entire town ending after its 1.4 mile long path. One house had damage to shingles, and a carport was completely destroyed |
| 00:53 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Rubio | Washington, IA | Delayed report and time estimated from radar. Three trees down with part of the porch roof missing. |
| 00:56 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Rubio | Washington, IA | Delayed Report. Several trees blown down, many tree branches damaged in Rubio. A car port was flipped over. Shingles damaged at same residence. Damaged occurred coincident with heavy rain and hail. Time estimated from ra |
| 00:58 UTC | TSTM WND GST 74 | Brighton | Washington, IA | |
| 01:04 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Brighton | Washington, IA | Report of golf ball sized hail. |
| 01:07 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 2 Nnw Pleasant Plain | Washington, IA | |
| 01:08 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 W Brighton | Washington, IA | |
| 01:25 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 Ne North English | Iowa, IA | Small limbs down as well. |
| 02:15 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Packwood | Jefferson, IA | Media relayed public report. |
| 02:37 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Fairfield | Jefferson, IA | Golf ball sized hail reported just outside Fairfield. Time estimated from radar. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2026 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of August 7, 2026
2 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.
What this means
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.
Sources
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.