Jordan is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Boone County,

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

, United States.

History

Jordan was historically called Midway and Harmon's Switch. The present name is after the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan (, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn''; , ''Nəhar hayYardēn''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Sharieat'' (), is a endorheic river in the Levant that flows roughly north to south through the Sea of Galilee and drains to the Dead ...

. Jordan was not officially

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...

ted. Jordan's population was 12 in 1902, and 26 in 1925. Jordan was hit by a massive

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

on June 13, 1976. The tornado was rated an F5 by the

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...

, and the

National Centers for Environmental Information The National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) is a U.S. government agency that manages one of the world's largest archives of atmospheric, coastal, geophysical, and oceanic data. The current director is Deke Arndt. NCEI is operate ...

(then called National Climatic Data Center) indicated that the damage path of the tornado was roughly or wide and long. The tornado destroyed virtually every house and business building in the community, but all residents survived. The tornado was accompanied by an F3 anticyclonic tornado two miles to the southeast. One unusual aspect of the F5 cyclonic tornado and F3 anticyclone tornado was the simultaneous right turn made by each. Dr.

Ted Fujita was a Japanese and American meteorologist whose research primarily focused on severe weather. His research at the University of Chicago on severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and typhoons revolutionized the knowledge of each. Although ...

, the originator of the Fujita tornado intensity scale, said the tornado which hit Jordan was one of the most intense and destructive he had ever studied.Tornado of 1976
/ref>

Notes

Unincorporated communities in Iowa Unincorporated communities in Boone County, Iowa Destroyed populated places {{BooneCountyIA-geo-stub