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National Weather Service confirms 4 more tornadoes hit Iowa, increasing weekend total from 9 to 13
A lone shoe sits among debris as cleanup efforts are underway Sunday in Winterset after an EF-4 tornado tore through an area southwest of town on Saturday. (Bryon Houlgrave/Des Moines Register via AP)
The National Weather Service has confirmed four additional tornadoes that struck Iowa during Saturday evening’s deadly severe weather, bringing the total from the previously confirmed nine to now 13.
The additional tornadoes, which caused no injuries, were:
- An EF-0 tornado with peak wind gusts of about 72 mph touching down near Cromwell and cutting a 3.4-mile path through Union and Adams counties, southwest of Des Moines.
- A tornado of unknown strength touching down near Corning in Adams County, leaving a 1.5-mile path.
- An EF-1 tornado with peak winds of 100 mph struck near Derby in Lucas County, southeast of Des Moines. The tornado damaged a structure on its 3.6-mile path.
- An EF-0 tornado with peak winds of about 72 mph struck near Chariton in Lucas County. The tornado circled less than two times around another larger tornado before being absorbed into that twister.
Seven people were killed in tornadoes near Winterset and Chariton. The nine previously confirmed tornadoes were:
- An EF-4 with peak winds of 170 mph on the ground for nearly 70 miles between Winterset and Newton. It left the longest path of destruction since a 1984 tornado that carved a path 117 miles long. The storm killed six people in rural Winterset, four of them from the same family seeking shelter in a home’s pantry because the house had no basement.
- An EF-3 tornado with estimated peak wind gusts of 138 mph touched down south of Chariton, carving a path through Red Haw State Park, where it killed one camper identified as Jesse Theron Fisher, 40, of Chariton, and injured another. The tornado stayed on the ground for 16.5 miles.
- An EF-2 tornado struck near Leon in Decatur County, grazing Garden Grove and Humeston. The tornado, with peak winds estimated at 122 mph, stayed on the ground for 19.1 miles into Lucas County.
- An EF-2 tornado with peak winds estimated at 118 mph touched down in Wayne County, first southwest of Allerton and then carving a 7.5 mile path to east of Corydon.
- An EF-1 with peak winds of 110 mph developed south of Vinton in Benton County, and stayed on the ground for 11 minutes, covering 8.5 miles, before lifting northeast of town.
- An EF-2 tornado with peak winds of 112 mph struck near Kellogg in Jasper County. It then carved a 17.4-mile path through Poweshiek and Tama counties.
- An EF-2 with wind gusts up to 115 mph struck near Tama, and stayed on the ground for 8.6 miles.
- An EF-1 with peak winds of 100 mph struck near Davenport and left a path more than 4 miles long. Survey teams said the storm left damage to outbuildings on farms and trees were snapped.
- A second storm, this one an EF-0, also touched down near Davenport. This storm, with peak winds of 65 mph, carved a path of about a tenth of a mile.
