The area was plagued yesterday with small microburst thunderstorms that began to hit around 5pm in Kossuth County. The storm system originally formed a line of storms extending southwest from the Algona area and continued to develop along the Minnesota-Iowa border.
At 5:15pm in Kossuth County storm spotters confirmed a tornado on the ground north west of Algona. The Algona Police Department contacted the National Weather Service in Des Moines to activate the outdoor warning system. Spotters stayed with the storm until it left the area.
The tornado in Algona was on the ground for about a minute and reached wind speeds of 60 mph. It was estimated to be 15 yards wide and traveled about a third of a mile. Police confirmed that there was no damage associated with the twister.
KIOW continued on the air with our weather coverage when, at 6:11pm we were informed of another strike, this time about 5 miles west of Scarville. Spotters there noted a EF-0 tornado that was on the ground for less than a minute. It covered about a third of a mile and was estimated to be about 20 yards wide. Like its predecessor, there was no damage or injuries associated with the storm. Winds were clocked at 60 miles an hour in the most intense part of the storm.
The same storm system that has spawned a tornado west of Algona, now zeroed in on Bode in Humboldt County. The system produced a second tornado which was well defined and was about 30 yards wide. It reached peak wind speeds of 60 mph and lasted about 2 minutes. Because of the wind speed, it was given an EF-0 classification. Unlike the other two tornadoes, this one traveled a half mile and caused some crop damage. However, there were no injuries.
The complex of storms actually split in two with one system traveling east along the Minnesota-Iowa border, the other tracking southwest through Corwith extending further south toward Humboldt. Cities in the path of this system had already seen extensive damage from storms earlier this month. Renwick fell victim to apparent straight line winds from the July 17th storms causing destruction to grain bins, downed trees and power lines, and a power outage that lasted 22 hours. Gold Eagle Co-op reported that they are down by 400,000 bushels in available storage in the fall due to the July 17th storms. Other cities in the path of the tornadic storms included Badger, Thor, Humboldt, and Dakota City, all of which saw tree and property damage, and power loss of various lengths from the July 17th storm and had to brace for another round Wednesday. Residents were relieved when the storm weakened prior to its arrival and the tornadic portion of the storm moved away from them and down the Highway 169 corridor.
The northern storm tracked along Highway 9 and 69 eastward through Scarville, then Lake Mills, Northwood, Kensett, and points eastward. Prior to its arrival in Lake Mills, the storm had weakened, but still had significant wind speeds associated with it. Heavy rains also fell in the area. The storm began to grow southward and drop a brief heavy rain on Forest City, then rapidly lost its punch as it tracked eastward.
The northern fork of the storm did not do any damage to crops according to several sources, despite the touch down in Scarville. There were no injuries, livestock losses, or property damage reported from that storm cell that re-intensified after crossing north into Minnesota and passed south of Rochester.
No strong storms like the ones Wednesday are expected today. The next chance of rain moves in on Saturday.
By: AJ Taylor, July 28, 2016
Photo: By Mary Reis via the Attig and Hobbs Weather Page
