Chasing the Greenfield, Iowa Tornado: Fast Storms & Hard Lessons
As featured on ChaseTheWind.net, May 21, 2024, brought some of the most intense tornado activity I’ve ever witnessed. Southwestern Iowa became the epicenter of violent, fast moving supercells, including the devastating Greenfield, IA tornado. The storm’s speed made it almost impossible to keep up with— a stark reminder that storm motion is one of the biggest challenges for chasers and one of the biggest threats to people in the path of a tornado moving this fast as your lead times from warning to shelter are reduced.
Trying to keep ahead of the storms
The supercell system moved northeast at nearly 50–55 mph, tearing through Page, Taylor, Adams, and Adair counties. The forward motion was relentless, pushing tornadoes across the plains faster than ground travel could safely keep pace. I was in pursuit, radar active, camera ready, adrenaline high — but the storm refused to slow down. I may or may not have sent Skip Talbot a FB message suggesting how air chasing was so much faster but not practical. I could have defiantly kept up with the storm if I had been in a Cessna 182. Nevertheless, a fashionably late departure for the target area prevented me from reaching my original target area and storms ended up firing a little early so I tracked as far ahead of these storms as I could because I knew they’d be moving. And boy were they. Between chaser filled main roads and clogged gravel backroads, it further made it harder for anyone that did not get an early start. When storms are moving more than 45mph, you will have a hard time keeping up with them just because of traffic laws and chaser congestion.
Caught in some chaos…….then a ditch
After the tornado knocked a massive tree across a road, I attempted a detour via backroads to avoid chaser convergence on the developing tornado that was already to my east. as that storm moved off to the northeast, I stopped and checked radar to see if there were any other storms heading my way. There was. Some storm 60+mph straight line winds knocked over a bunch of big trees across the dirt road. As I attempted to drive around the leaves of the tree, my tires found out the ditch was sudden and deep. As I slid down in to the ditch at almost a 45 degree angle, I felt like the car was going to roll over. Fortunately, it did not. That was the end of my chase though. Waited the storm out and watched the ditch fill up to my windshield, I shut my car off and rolled the window down and got out and got up on the road. The water was flood water but it was pooling at the bottom of the hill, straight in to the ditch I was in.
After the storms moved off east, a local farmer came down to clear the tree off the road. I gave him a hand and we had knocked out in about 25mins or so. Big maple tree. Gave the guys a tip since they made the retrieval a lot of fun. That unintended off-road incident caused a delay I would never recover from so I called the chase and headed home. Technically, it was not a bust — because I did get the tornadogenesis of the Greenfield, IA tornado and a couple other weaker tornadoes that afternoon. My poor planning on staying ahead of the storm until it was time to intercept the tornado was the lesson #1 of the day. Lesson #2, do not assume the grass means no ditch. There’s probably a ditch. Get out and look. #3. Always carry a tow strap and a backup tow strap. Under tension, a gravel stone can sever a strap. Ask me how I know ha
Favorite part of this storm chase?
Even with the chase not going perfectly, I managed to film the tornado as it began to form along with a couple of other weaker tornados. The raw power and atmospheric drama of these storms is what keeps us coming back.
A major severe weather event including tornadoes, large hail, and damaging winds moved across areas in Iowa. Shot sequences of damaging tornadoes and debris path damage.
Lessons Learned
Always plan alternate routes — terrain and blocked roads can cost precious minutes.
Factor in forward storm motion — some storms move faster than 50–60 mph.
Being ahead of the storm is often more important than being close.
Storm chasing is unpredictable — even experienced chasers can get caught off-guard.
This chase was a reminder that tornadoes are both beautiful and unforgiving. For more storm chasing insights, videos, and analysis, visit ChaseTheWind.net.
Engage with the Chase:
What’s the craziest storm motion story you’ve experienced? Drop a comment and share your storm-chasing adventures!
