tornadic supercell and straight-line winds in aledo, il
16 april 2024

on the evening of tuesday, 16 april 2024, a long-track ef-2 tornado carved a 42-mile path throughout southeast iowa, tearing through lee, henry, des moines, and louisa counties. the tornado shredded trees, mangled outbuildings, and causing structural damage to residences.

by the time it approached the mississippi river, the tornado weakened and lifted near port louisa national wildlife refuge at 2221z. on the illinois side of the river, i observed the parent supercell—still tornado-warned—and watched the remnants of rotation move into illinois. hail cores were backlit by the setting sun and evident in the second photograph on the right.

this tornado had the longest path length of any tornado in the quad cities cwa in almost ten years to the day.