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Tornado touches down briefly in Des Moines suburb

News, Weather

May 26th, 2020 by Ric Hanson

(Updated 7:38-a.m.) JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) — A tornado briefly touched down Monday evening in the Des Moines suburb of Johnston, uprooting trees and damaging traffic signals. The National Weather Service confirmed the tornado (rated an EF-1). The twister in the Johnston area packed winds of up to 95 miles per hour, tracked for 1.6-miles, and was a maximum of 50-yards wide. It began at around 6:26-p.m. and ended three minutes later. No injuries were reported.

In eastern Iowa, winds gusted up to 67 mph in Newton, and high winds Monday night near Luxemburg lifted the roof off a barn and crashed it into another building, causing it to collapse onto a hog nursery building. The Dubuque Telegraph Herald reports the nursery building then caught on fire, killing 300 hogs inside.

The Weather Service said more severe weather is expected today (Tuesday), with thunderstorms, heavy rain and a chance of tornadoes. The rain could lead to localized flooding.