Washtington/Downey Tornado

On the afternoon of May 15, 1998 a significant tornado event occurred across southeast and east central Iowa. A brief touchdown also occurred in northwest Illinois. The most powerful tornado produced a 45 mile long path of destruction and debris. There other tornadoes touched down briefly producing only minor damage.

The largest tornado was classified as a strong F3 on the Fujita scale. This classification was based on a survey conducted by the staff of the National Weather Service Quad Cities...Davenport office after surveying damage at the James and Dorothy Goody farm site which is approximately 5 miles southwest of Downey, IA. At this location the tornado was at its widest...nearly three tenths of a mile wide.

This tornado...referred to as the Washington/Downey Tornado developed two miles southwest of Washington at 5:05 PM and produced a 30 mile long continuous path of damage and debris as it moved to the northeast at nearly 30 mph. The tornado weakened and lifted just before reaching I-80 near West Branch shortly before 6 PM. The tornado did however continue to the northeast across Cedar County producing another 15 miles of isolated damage...not continuous. The storm that produced this tornado damage continued moving northeast eventually producing a brief touchdown one mile west of Oxford Mills in the southeast corner of Jones County...near the intersection of county roads E53 and X64. Another brief touchdown occurred north of Dubuque near Zwingle before the storm finally moved into Wisconsin between 7:30 and 7:45 PM. The Washington/Downey tornado injured 20-30 but all were reported as minor injuries. There were no fatalities.

The above information was from the National Weather Service Quad Cities...Davenport.