Getty Image / Jonah Lange
An EF-4 tornado hit Greenfield, Iowa on Tuesday that was so powerful it is almost hard to grasp the level of destruction it caused in a matter of minutes.
Greenfield is out in the middle of nowhere. It’s an hour southwest from Des Moines and about an hour and a half due east from Nebraska and until Tuesday most people outside of Iowa had probably never heard of the town with just 2,000(ish) residents and whose only real claim to fame is Dick Van Dyke filmed Cold Turkey there in 1971.
Tragically, much of the nation has seen Greenfield, Iowa in the news over the past 24 hours after the EF4 tornado leveled portions of the area and sent debris flying 40,000 feet into the air:
A no-doubt violent tornado just impacted Greenfield, Iowa and adjacent areas, lofting debris to around 40,000 feet(!!!!), a feat only achieved by the absolute highest echelon of tornadoes in the dual-pol WSR-88D era. pic.twitter.com/XszGqtNAT4
— Sam Emmerson (@ou_sams) May 21, 2024
According to the National Weather Service, this is the 2nd highest Tornado Debris Signature (TDS) ever measured:
Weather chasers were on the scene and flew drones to capture this EF4 tornado. These wind turbines were shredded to pieces:
This drone footage of the aftermath of the EF4 tornado hitting Greenfield, Iowa might be difficult to watch. It shows a completely leveled downtown with so much debris it is difficult to discern what is what:
#Tornado went right through downtown #Greenfield #Iowa. Drone flight from one end of town to the other shows catastrophic destruction. Please find an appropriate way to donate to the town. pic.twitter.com/yKeJGS99vo
— WxChasing- Brandon Clement (@bclemms) May 21, 2024
Since one of my colleagues asked me to clarify it for him, I’ll explain it here as well. For those wondering about ‘EF’ vs ‘F’ classification with tornadoes, ‘EF’ stands for ‘Enhanced F-Scale’. Here is the Weather.gov breakdown of the EF Scale for tornadoes:
Weather.gov
Our hearts go out to everyone in Iowa who were impacted by this EF4 tornado. We cannot begin to imagine what it is like for everyone waking up this morning after being impacted by that storm.