EF1 tornado, Croton to Franklin, Iowa, March 10, 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

March 10, 2026

Touchdown

9:05 PM CDT (02:05 UTC)

Lifted

9:08 PM CDT (02:08 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.5 miles (2.4 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Lee County

Touchdown point

40.624, -91.627

Lift-off point

40.627, -91.599

Highest wind the damage implies

100 mph

Surveyed by

NWS DVN

The office's name for it

SW Donnellson

Survey last edited

March 11, 2026

Record number

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

An EF1 tornado with peak winds of 95 to 100 mph begun its 1.5 mile long path by downing some tree branches. The tornado increased in strength causing damage to the door of a farm outbuilding along with damage to additional farm out buildings. The tornado continued east along 230th street, causing sporadic tree damage for around 1 mile. The tornado then strengthened even more near 230th street and 160th avenue, where it destroyed two farm outbuildings and snapped numerous tree trunks. This is where the tornado was the strongest. Shortly after crossing 160th street, the tornado weakened and eventually dissipated.

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

Numerous severe thunderstorms developed during the afternoon on Tuesday producing hail that ranged in size from penny (0.88) to baseball (2.75) in diameter. There was a total of 10 reports with hail over 2.00 inches in diameter. During the early evening hours, one storm produced three different EF-1 tornadoes in Lee County near Donnellson.

An EF1 tornado with peak winds of 95 to 100 mph began its 1.5 mile long path by downing some tree branches. The tornado increased in strength causing damage to the door of a farm outbuilding along with damage to additional farm out buildings. The tornado continued east along 230th street, causing sporadic tree damage for around 1 mile. The tornado then strengthened even more near 230th street and 160th avenue, where it destroyed two farm outbuildings and snapped numerous tree trunks. This is where the tornado was the strongest. Shortly after crossing 160th street, the tornado weakened and eventually dissipated. The tornado had a max width of 50 yards.

An EF1 tornado with max winds near 90 mph begun its 2.1 mile long path with damage to tree branches. The tornado then caused damage to some fascia on a house and then crossed into Wilson Lake Park where additional trees were downed. Some trees were uprooted with a couple of trees had their trunks snapped. Tree damage became more sporadic as the tornado continued east leading to minor tree damage through the remainder of its path. The max width was 50 yards.

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

24 minutes of warning. NWS DVN issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:41 UTC, 24 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:58 UTC and running to 03:46 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:34 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), 140 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:08 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

20 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.