Tornado warnings went off Tuesday, June 25, as severe thunderstorms moved through the Mount Vernon area and a handful of funnel clouds were spotted.
A storm generated a thin funnel cloud that touched down in rural Ely at roughly 5:25 p.m., as seen from videos captured of the storm. That EF0 tornado, as classified by the National Weather Service, had some minor damage, including downed tree branches a power pole cross member and lifted some loose asphalt before dissipating from the ground.
At roughly 5:30 p.m. storm spotters locally saw the remnants of that waterspout heading south of Mount Vernon, while another funnel cloud was visible more toward the north and west portion of town (as captured from Dave Loebsack from his home along Sixteenth Avenue).
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration noted the tornadoes spotted early in the storm exhibited traits of landspout tornadoes. A landspout tornado is a narrow, rope-like condensation funnel, almost translucent and develop on a well-defined weather boundary that forms while a thunderstorm is developing.
Neither of those funnel clouds touched down locally, and the storms that rolled into the community passed to the south and east Tuesday afternoon.
In Solon, they had spots of hail from the same storm.
Two unknown-strength EF tornadoes were also spotted in Olin in Jones County.
The storm also generated straight-line winds in locations from Iowa City through Muscatine County and into the southwest portions of the Quad Cities metro.
Rainfall from the slower-moving storms generated roughly 3.3 inches in the span of the storm in Almont in Clinton County.
Funnels spotted near Mount Vernon
Nathan Countryman, Editor
July 4, 2024
About the Contributor
Nathan Countryman, Editor
Nathan Countryman is the Editor of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun.