EF0 tornado, Gillett Grove to Dickens, Iowa, May 17, 2026

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.

Rating, as surveyed

EF0, preliminary

Date

May 17, 2026

Touchdown

9:06 PM CDT (02:06 UTC)

Path length

1.2 miles (1.9 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Clay County

Touchdown point

43.167, -94.921

Lift-off point

43.183, -94.930

Highest wind the damage implies

80 mph

Surveyed by

NWS FSD

Survey last edited

July 31, 2026

Record number

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

Path noted in Copernicus Sentinel satellite imagery. Damage reported from Grand View Park is in line with path.

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

4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DMX and NWS FSD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

• Attached carport (south-facing) tore off of single family home. Photo provided by Palo Alto Emergency Management.
• Photo provided by Palo Alto Emergency Management.
• Two mobile homes with roof damage and large tree branches downed.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

An approaching mid-level disturbance broke a weak cap and allowed storms to erupt during the afternoon along a slow moving frontal boundary. These storms rapidly organized into short bowing segments and then became highly linear across northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota during the evening. Initial supercell storms produced large hail with as much as 2000-3000 J/kg MLCAPE, but DCAPE of around 750-1000 J/kg allowed for the development of organized cold pools and an increasing wind threat. Several brief and highly visible tornadic spin-ups developed along the line of storms by late afternoon and evening across far eastern South Dakota, northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota.||In addition, repeated thunderstorms brought as much as 2-4 inches of rain in a short period of time to portions of Plymouth and southern Sioux County in northwest Iowa. This same area had also received locally heavy rainfall during the previous days, resulting in spotty flooding of already saturated locations.

Copernicus Sentinel satellite imagery indicated a brief tornado touched down just northeast of Gillett Grove northeast of the intersection of 430th Street and 280th Avenue. The tornado tracked northeast across open fields for a couple minutes before taking a slight turn to the north-northeast for around 3 miles before it lifted near the intersection of 390th Street and 300th Avenue. There were no damage indicators present to derive a rating. The average path width was estimated at 50 yards.

A brief tornado spun up near the western shore of Lost Island Lake. Shortly after touchdown, the tornado damaged the roof on two mobile homes and downed several large tree branches. The tornado tracked north-northwest in open fields to the west of 330th Avenue before it lifted just southwest of Mud Lake. The tornado was rated EF0 with an estimated peak wind of 80 mph and an average path width was 30 yards.

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

18 minutes of warning. NWS FSD issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:48 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:42 UTC and running to 03:00 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 01:07 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 Sioux Falls radar (KFSD), 153 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

47 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.