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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
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
- 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) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 02:59 UTC | 03:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | DMX |
| 03:06 UTC | 06:11 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | DMX |
| 03:31 UTC | 11:09 UTC | Flood Watch | DMX |
| 03:41 UTC | 04:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DMX |
| 03:53 UTC | 05:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DMX |
| 04:11 UTC | 04:31 UTC | Tornado Warning | DMX |
| 04:23 UTC | 08:11 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | DMX |
| 04:28 UTC | 05:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DMX |
| 04:38 UTC | 05:21 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DMX |
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.
- 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
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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 03:44 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Wnw Macedonia | Pottawattamie, IA | Photo of mature walnut tree uprooted west of Macedonia. Time is estimated from radar. |
| 03:45 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | 1.9 Nw Henderson | Mills, IA | |
| 03:48 UTC | TSTM WND GST 69 | 5.9 W Macedonia | Pottawattamie, IA | |
| 03:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Carson | Pottawattamie, IA | Several Large tree limbs down. |
| 03:54 UTC | TSTM WND GST 59 | 7.8 Ne Emerson | Montgomery, IA | |
| 04:00 UTC | HAIL 1 | 4 S Massena | Cass, IA | Report of quarter size hail south of Massena relayed via Chat. |
| 04:01 UTC | TSTM WND GST 65 | Griswold | Cass, IA | Measured from personal weather station. |
| 04:10 UTC | TSTM WND GST 59 | 7 Se Griswold | Cass, IA | Measured from personal weather station. |
| 04:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Elliott | Montgomery, IA | Trees Uprooted. |
| 04:18 UTC | HAIL 1.5 | 3 S Massena | Cass, IA | Reports of power flashes and ping pong ball sized hail south of Massena. |
| 04:29 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | 5.6 Wsw Grant | Montgomery, IA | |
| 04:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Essex | Page, IA | 1-2 inch tree limbs down. |
| 04:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Essex | Page, IA | Corrects previous tstm wnd dmg report from Essex. 1-2 inch tree limbs down. |
| 04:58 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | 7 Ese Greenfield | Adair, IA | Measured from personal weather station. |
| 04:59 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | Orient | Adair, IA | Measured 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.
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.