Hail, Polk
- When
- August 12, 2:30 PM CST
- Where
- Polk County
- Measured
- 3 in hail
- Coordinates
- 41.780, -93.500
Tornado and Hail in Iowa, August 12, 1956
2 hail, 1 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
- 0
- Injuries
- 8
- Property damage
- $25,000
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 3
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
2 hail, 1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
Hail, Polk
- When
- August 12, 2:30 PM CST
- Where
- Polk County
- Measured
- 1.75 in hail
- Coordinates
- 41.700, -93.400
Tornado, Poweshiek
- When
- August 12, 4:00 PM CST
- Where
- Poweshiek County
- Rating
- F3
- Path length
- 5.1 mi
- Path width
- 200 yd
- Injuries
- 8 direct, 0 indirect
- Property damage
- $25,000
- Coordinates
- 41.530, -92.750
What these are
- Hail
- Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.
- 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.
The same day elsewhere
- Tornadoes and Damaging Winds in Indiana, August 12, 1956
- Tornado and Hail in Illinois, August 12, 1956
- Tornado and Hail in Georgia, August 12, 1956
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Virginia, August 12, 1956
- Damaging Winds in Massachusetts, August 12, 1956
- Hail in Pennsylvania, August 12, 1956
- Damaging Wind in Minnesota, August 12, 1956
More
Every storm in Iowa in 1956Every state in 1956This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Iowa, 1956
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: 10015718, 10015719, 10015720.