Remembering the Iowa F5 Twister That Destroyed an Entire Town

Iowa has seen some tragic tornadoes over the years, but one in particular is remembered as infamous. It was an F5 twister that destroyed nearly everything in an Iowa town.

We recently passed the 55th anniversary of the June 13, 1976 F5 tornado that destroyed just about every single building in Jordan, Iowa.

There's an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to this historic twister. It was a half-mile wide vortex that stayed on the ground for a staggering 21 miles. Here's how it's officially remembered on Wikipedia:

The tornado destroyed virtually every house and business building in the community, but all residents survived

I've made that last part bold because it's nothing short of miraculous that no one lost their life in Jordan that day.

The Jordan, Iowa tornado is famous for another reason. It was this twister that led to Ted Fujita's groundbreaking research into tornadoes that led to the Fujita scale we refer to today.

One other strange feature of this particular storm is that there was another satellite tornado that accompanied the F5 twister that registered F3 on its own. Scientists at the time were surprised to learn that both tornadoes made a right turn simultaneously.

It's been over 55 years since Jordan, Iowa was nearly wiped off the map. The fact that such a massive destructive tornado didn't take any lives today is the part I'd like to recall the most about what transpired that day.