Video Captures Moment Tornado Touches Down in Iowa

A family driving down a road in Woodbury County, Iowa, recorded with their phone's camera the moment a tornado briefly touched ground just feet ahead of them.

In a less than one minute clip shared with KTIV News 4, the car owned by the Oleson family can be seen driving down I-29 southbound near Sergeant Bluff, when a tornado suddenly appears less than a mile ahead of the vehicle.

The camera then follows the tornado, which quickly advances towards the car and passes it on the left, a dangerous-looking, swirly column of thick gray air. The family and their vehicle appear unharmed and untouched by the tornado, but KTIV News 4 did not provide any more information on the Olesons.

Severe weather was reported across the Big Sioux River basin stretching through Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and South Dakota on Thursday, with destructive winds moving through the region throughout the afternoon.

KTIV News 4 reported that winds were gusting up to 80 miles per hour and wreaked havoc in their passage, damaging buildings and taking down power lines in neighboring northeast Nebraska. In South Dakota, wind gusts reached a record speed of 107 miles per hour.

A severe Thunderstorm Watch was in effect in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa until 10 p.m. on Thursday, the areas most affected by the fast-moving line of storms that hit the upper Midwest in the evening.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that a person was killed on Thursday night in Kandiyohi County after a grain bin toppled by the violent wind crashed on a car, killing the passenger.

Iowa residents reported evidence of "haboobs," intense dust storms caused by movement of the air ahead of a thunderstorm.

The weather is expected to improve on Friday, although southeastern Siouxland could see a few storms on Saturday, according to KTIV News 4.

The Weather Service in Des Moines reported that gusts of 20 to 30 miles per hour were still common on Friday morning across central Iowa, but the worst had passed.

Iowa has been hit by a record-breaking heatwave this week, with hot and humid weather gripping the southeastern part of the state on Wednesday and Thursday. Weather forecasts expect temperatures to change over the weekend, with a cold front pushing through on Saturday.

More high temperature records were broken in Iowa on Thursday, with Waterloo reporting 94 degrees, beating the old record of 89 set in 1900, and Mason City recording 94 degrees, four degrees higher than the previous record reported in 1907.