Tornado in Iowa
Every tornado event the National Weather Service has filed in Iowa, year by year, with the most significant episodes. 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.
The most significant on the map
The most significant tornado episodes in Iowa.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The record
- Events
- 3,501
- Deaths
- 100
- Injuries
- 2,341
- Damage
- $2.9 billion
Every year
The most significant
Ranked by deaths, injuries, damage and size together.
- Tornadoes and Hail in Iowa, May 15, 1968
- Tornadoes and Hail in Iowa, October 14, 1966
- Tornadoes and Hail in Iowa, May 25, 2008A very intense upper low was located over the southwest U.S. and lifted northeast during the weekend of the 24th into the morning of the 26th.
- Tornadoes and Hail in Iowa, June 7, 1984
- Tornadoes and Hail in Iowa, June 28, 1979
- Tornadoes and Hail in Iowa, March 5, 2022On March 5, 2022 a total of 15 tornadoes occurred across the state of Iowa as a warm front lifted across the area. Supercells initially developed across southwest Iowa in the vicinity of the triple point of the surface low with strong, rotating updrafts.
- Tornado and Hail in Iowa, August 10, 2020A powerful line of severe thunderstorms produced a derecho which tracked across eastern Iowa and northwest Illinois on the afternoon of Monday, August 10th, resulting in widespread straight line wind damage.
- Tornadoes in Iowa, May 21, 2024PLEASE NOTE, for hail, wind, heavy rain and flooding, please see separate Storm Data entry for May 20-22. Numerous tornadoes occurred on this day with numerous injuries and four fatalities at Greenfield in Adair County.
- Tornadoes and Hail in Iowa, September 16, 1978
- Tornadoes and Flooding in Iowa, June 29, 1998A complex weather situation was set up over the central U.S. as a mesoscale convective system passed to the south of Iowa during the overnight hours and early morning of the 29th. Initially, the surface warm front was located to the south of this system.
- Tornadoes and Hail in Iowa, June 18, 1974
- Tornadoes and Flash Flooding in Iowa, June 11 to 13, 2008A very strong and unseasonably cold upper level low pressure system that was tracking across the northern plains brought a strong low level jet to the region during the early morning hours of June 11th.
- Tornadoes and Damaging Winds in Iowa, July 15, 1988
- Tornadoes and Hail in Iowa, May 30, 1985
- Tornadoes and Hail in Iowa, April 12, 1964
- Tornadoes in Iowa, June 27, 1953
- Tornadoes and Hail in Iowa, June 13, 1976
- Tornadoes and Hail in Iowa, May 17, 1991
- Tornadoes and Hail in Iowa, August 26, 1965
- Tornado and Hail in Iowa, April 16, 1967
- Tornadoes and Hail in Iowa, August 28, 1979
- Tornado in Iowa, May 16, 1999The stronger of the 2 tornadoes that ripped through Harrison county the afternoon of 5/16/99 killed 2 people and destroyed 6 homes and a bridge before it dissipated a couple of miles east of Logan.
- Tornadoes and Hail in Iowa, April 11, 2001A very powerful storm system moved through the southern Rockies during the night of the 10th and early morning of the 11th. Intense surface low pressure formed over western Kansas with a central pressure by sunrise on the 11th of 977 Mb.
- Tornadoes and Hail in Iowa, July 19, 2018A setup for some rotating storms was in place over much of central and southern Iowa. A low pressure system situated northwest of the state slid to the northeast throughout the day, eventually moving into western and central Minnesota.
- Tornadoes and Hail in Iowa, January 24, 1967
More
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.