Tornadoes · United States · Iowa · 2026

EF0 tornado, Cass County, Iowa, June 5, 2026

This EF0 tornado ran 2.3 miles across Cass County on June 5, 2026, touching down at 11:13 PM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody.

Preliminary. This is NWS DMX's damage survey, filed in the Damage Assessment Toolkit as SW_Massena-Tor. 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.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    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. 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
EF0, preliminary
Date
June 5, 2026
Touchdown
11:13 PM CDT (04:13 UTC)
Lifted
11:18 PM CDT (04:18 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
2.3 miles (3.7 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Cass County
Touchdown point
41.188, -94.868
Lift-off point
41.197, -94.836
Highest wind the damage implies
85 mph
Surveyed by
NWS DMX
The office's name for it
SW_Massena-Tor
Survey last edited
June 9, 2026
Record number
None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

The warnings

2 minutes of warning. NWS DMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:11 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:31 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 03:06 UTC and running to 06:11 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
02:59 UTC03:45 UTCTornado WarningDMX
03:06 UTC06:11 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchDMX
03:31 UTC11:09 UTCFlood WatchDMX
03:41 UTC04:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX
03:53 UTC05:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX
04:11 UTC04:31 UTCTornado WarningDMX
04:23 UTC08:11 UTCFlash Flood WarningDMX
04:28 UTC05:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX
04:38 UTC05:21 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX

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 01:00 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.

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 00:00Z

4.2 hours before the tornado, 128 km from the path. June 6, 2026.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 2026-06-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1542 joules per kilogram, CIN -42, lifted condensation level 1674 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, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 2026-06-06The 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 18 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 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
1542 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-42 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2564 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1674 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
18 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
144 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.9
0-3 km lapse rate
7.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Des Moines radar (KDMX), 111 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:13 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
03:44 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Wnw MacedoniaPottawattamie, IAPhoto of mature walnut tree uprooted west of Macedonia. Time is estimated from radar.
03:45 UTCTSTM WND GST 601.9 Nw HendersonMills, IA
03:48 UTCTSTM WND GST 695.9 W MacedoniaPottawattamie, IA
03:50 UTCTSTM WND DMGCarsonPottawattamie, IASeveral Large tree limbs down.
03:54 UTCTSTM WND GST 597.8 Ne EmersonMontgomery, IA
04:00 UTCHAIL 14 S MassenaCass, IAReport of quarter size hail south of Massena relayed via Chat.
04:01 UTCTSTM WND GST 65GriswoldCass, IAMeasured from personal weather station.
04:10 UTCTSTM WND GST 597 Se GriswoldCass, IAMeasured from personal weather station.
04:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGElliottMontgomery, IATrees Uprooted.
04:18 UTCHAIL 1.53 S MassenaCass, IAReports of power flashes and ping pong ball sized hail south of Massena.
04:29 UTCTSTM WND GST 605.6 Wsw GrantMontgomery, IA
04:35 UTCTSTM WND DMGEssexPage, IA1-2 inch tree limbs down.
04:35 UTCTSTM WND DMGEssexPage, IACorrects previous tstm wnd dmg report from Essex. 1-2 inch tree limbs down.
04:58 UTCTSTM WND GST 607 Ese GreenfieldAdair, IAMeasured from personal weather station.
04:59 UTCTSTM WND GST 60OrientAdair, IAMeasured from personal weather station.

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 June 5, 2026

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

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 58:32 PM CDTEF0Monroe, WI3.150
June 59:41 PM CDTEF0Warren, IA1.325

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.