The Terrifying Moment a Half-Mile Wide Tornado Slammed Iowa Farms

This is one view you hope and pray you never see out of your back door. It's a moment captured on video when a monster tornado blew leveled several Iowa farms during last weeks horrific twister outbreak.

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The person who just shared the video also shared the backstory behind it:

I had already passed through Hedrick and was headed toward Martinsburg. I stopped on the eastern edge of Martinsburg and videoed the tornado hitting 2 farms/houses then a hog building with 10,000 40lb feeder pigs and finally, a 3rd farm/house just as it crossed the highway. I was traveling about a 1/2 mile ahead. Soon as the tornado crossed the road, I headed to the 2nd farmhouse that was destroyed in the video. After searching the house and learning the owner wasn’t home, I headed towards the first farmhouse hit in the video.

This wedge tornado was later rated an EF-3 by the National Weather Service based on the damage caused. It was a 1,000 yard wide monster at its peak strength.

This is the damage path that the National Weather Service shared in regards to this tornado.

During that March 31, 2023 tornado outbreak, there were 30 confirmed tornadoes that caused 11 injuries.

As you can see on the National Weather Service map, the red lines represent EF-4 twisters, the orange this EF-3 rated tornado and the others EF-1 and EF-2 strength. The twister that hit these Iowa farms was one of the strongest that day and it's miraculous that no fatalities were reported as a result of it.