Strong storms produce tornadoes in northern Iowa

SWEA CITY — At least two tornadoes, possibly three, touched down in northern Iowa Tuesday night.

The National Weather Service office in Sioux Falls says a tornado was reported about 5:30 PM near the town of Cushing in Woodbury County and another tornado was spotted ten minutes later near Ida Grove in Ida County.

Meteorologist Alex Krull, at the National Weather Service office in Johnston, says they’re investigating another report of severe weather near Swea City in Kossuth County. “We’re not sure if it was a tornado or not,” Krull says. “Right now, we’re in communication with the emergency managers. It looks like this may just be widespread wind damage.” There were no reports of any injuries in that part of the state either.

Krull says winds in the Swea City area last night were clocked between 60 and 70 miles-an-hour. “We did have some damage to buildings and we had several trees that were knocked down in the area,” Krull says.

Excluding last night’s storms, Iowa has recorded 43 tornadoes so far this year, slightly behind the average. During all of last year, Iowa had 69 tornadoes.