Iowa

Storm History: Dubuque County, Iowa

539 episodes, 965 events since 1955

Every storm the National Weather Service has filed in Dubuque County, Iowa: floods, hail, damaging wind, tornadoes, winter storms, heat and the rest, with the most serious on record. Events filed by forecast zone count for every county the zone covers.

The record

Events
965
Deaths
2
Injuries
27
Damage
$101 million
Episodes
539

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.

Open the live radar over Dubuque County

Every year

From 1996 the record holds 48 kinds of event with each office’s narrative; before that, tornadoes, hail and thunderstorm wind only, and before 1955 tornadoes alone.

By kind of event

Counted under the kind that heads each episode.

Kind of eventEventsDeathsInjuriesDamage
Tornado24401$31 million
Hail21509$9.9 million
Flash Flood12900$30 million
Thunderstorm Wind10006$659,000
Winter Storm6510
Winter Weather5200$7,000
Flood3500$7.8 million
Heavy Snow2200$5,000
Ice Storm1700$16,000
High Wind1501$120,000
Blizzard1400
Dense Fog12110
Extreme Cold/Wind Chill1200
Drought1200$21 million
Cold/Wind Chill800
Frost/Freeze700$25,000
Heat300
Strong Wind100
Excessive Heat100
Freezing Fog100

The deadliest

The costliest

Damage within this county, in the dollars of its year.

The largest hail

The largest stone in each episode, which may have fallen in a neighboring county of the same episode.

The strongest tornadoes

Every tornado in Dubuque County, with its track

Every episode, newest first

Earlier years, state by state:

More

Tornadoes in Dubuque CountyEvery warning in Dubuque County since 1986Every county in Iowa

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.