Saturday marks 50 years since one of Iowa’s strongest tornadoes in modern history. On June 13, 1976, a rare F5 tornado formed in Boone County, decimated the tiny community of Jordan, and injured nine people.

A Monster Tornado

The tornado first developed around 3:25 that Sunday afternoon three miles southwest of Luther. After crossing Hwy. 17 north of town, the tornado churned over open country, devastating numerous farmsteads on its way toward Hwy. 30 between Boone and Ames.

At its widest, the F5 stretched half a mile across. Winds blew at speeds well above 200 mph. Around 3:45, the tornado reached Jordan and leveled nearly every structure there. The local school building and elevator were both severely damaged.

Unusual Tornadic Siblings

While the main tornado was destroying dozens of homes and hundreds of buildings, two other tornadoes formed from the same parent thunderstorm. A smaller, short-lived satellite tornado (rated F2) spun out of the main tornado and traveled to its southeast before ending north of Jordan.

Another tornado followed. This tornado was extremely rare because it was anticyclonic. Nearly all tornadoes in the Northern Hemisphere are cyclonic, meaning they rotate counterclockwise. For nearly a half-hour, the Jordan storm sustained two rare tornadoes just miles apart — a large, powerful F5 rotating counterclockwise and an F3 spinning clockwise.

Ted Fujita’s Research

Renowned severe weather researcher Dr. Ted Fujita, developer of the Fujita Scale, traveled to Iowa to survey damage left behind from the Jordan tornado. Fujita described the tornado as the most intense he’d ever studied at the time.

The 1976 Jordan tornado would be the last F5/EF5 tornado in Iowa for more than 30 years. The state’s most recent EF5 struck the town of Parkersburg in 2008.

Original reporting: KCCI Des Moines — read the source article.