Tornado, Story
- When
- May 20, 9:00 PM CST
- Where
- Story County
- Rating
- F3
- Path length
- 22.7 mi
- Path width
- 400 yd
- Deaths
- 1 direct, 0 indirect
- Coordinates
- 42.150, -93.700
Tornadoes in Iowa, May 20, 1953
6 tornado, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The toll
- Deaths
- 1
- Injuries
- 7
- Property damage
- None recorded
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 6
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
Event by event
6 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
Tornado, Hardin
- When
- May 20, 9:20 PM CST
- Where
- Hardin County
- Rating
- F3
- Path length
- 21.3 mi
- Path width
- 400 yd
- Coordinates
- 42.300, -93.300
Tornado, Hardin
- When
- May 20, 9:45 PM CST
- Where
- Hardin County
- Rating
- F3
- Path length
- 55.6 mi
- Path width
- 400 yd
- Coordinates
- 42.550, -93.050
Tornado, Chickasaw
- When
- May 20, 10:10 PM CST
- Where
- Chickasaw County
- Rating
- F3
- Path length
- 16.5 mi
- Path width
- 400 yd
- Coordinates
- 43.200, -92.400
Tornado, Linn
- When
- May 20, 10:10 PM CST
- Where
- Linn County
- Rating
- F3
- Path length
- 9.4 mi
- Path width
- 400 yd
- Injuries
- 4 direct, 0 indirect
- Coordinates
- 41.980, -91.570
Tornado, Jones
- When
- May 20, 10:45 PM CST
- Where
- Jones County
- Rating
- F3
- Path length
- 19.2 mi
- Path width
- 400 yd
- Injuries
- 3 direct, 0 indirect
- Coordinates
- 42.020, -91.380
The people who died
As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.
| Event | Date | Age | Sex | Where | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tornado, Story | 1953-05-20 | Direct |
What these are
- Tornado
- A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
More
Every storm in Iowa in 1953Every state in 1953This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Iowa, 1953
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 10017035, 10017036, 10017037, 10017038, 10017039, 10017040.