Tornadoes · United States · Iowa

1995 tornadoes in Iowa

42 tornadoes touched down in Iowa in 1995, about the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody. 3 were rated F4 or EF4 and above.

1994 1996 The whole country in 1995

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
F2113 to 157 mph
Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.
F3158 to 206 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
F5261 to 318 mph
Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.
Unrated
The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Every tornado in Iowa in 1995

May 8 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 8	9:58 PM CDT	F0	Fremont	0.1	10

May 9 12 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 9	3:43 PM CDT	F0	Muscatine	0.5	40	$500 to $5,000
May 9	4:06 PM CDT	F0	Muscatine	0.2	23	$5,000 to $50,000
May 9	4:07 PM CDT	F0	Muscatine	0.5	40	$5,000 to $50,000
May 9	4:11 PM CDT	F2	Cedar	7.0	100	$50,000 to $500,000
May 9	4:29 PM CDT	F0	Muscatine	0.2	30	$500 to $5,000
May 9	4:50 PM CDT	F0	Scott	0.2	23	$500 to $5,000
May 9	4:55 PM CDT	F3	Scott	10.0	73	$500,000 to $5 million
May 9	5:17 PM CDT	F1	Scott	3.0	50	$500 to $5,000
May 9	5:40 PM CDT	F0	Scott	0.2	30	$5,000 to $50,000
May 9	5:40 PM CDT	F0	Scott	0.2	30	$5,000 to $50,000
May 9	5:40 PM CDT	F0	Scott	0.2	30	$500 to $5,000
May 9	5:45 PM CDT	F1	Scott	0.5	40	$5,000 to $50,000

May 27 8 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
May 27	7:22 PM CDT	F4	Carroll	36.0	400		$500,000 to $5 million
May 27	7:55 PM CDT	F4	Union	57.0	500	2	$500,000 to $5 million
May 27	7:56 PM CDT	F4	Guthrie	30.0	250	1	$500,000 to $5 million
May 27	8:01 PM CDT	F1	Crawford	2.5	50		$50,000 to $500,000
May 27	8:28 PM CDT	F2	Carroll	22.5	100		$50,000 to $500,000
May 27	9:49 PM CDT	F1	Webster	4.0	40		$5,000 to $50,000
May 27	10:19 PM CDT	F1	Ringgold	5.5	40		$5,000 to $50,000
May 27	12:50 AM CDT	F0	Appanoose	0.2	23		$500 to $5,000

June 2 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 2	2:00 PM CDT	F0	Wapello	0.1	10			$500 to $5,000

June 5 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 5	4:20 PM CDT	F0	Story	5.0	20			$5,000 to $50,000

June 6 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
June 6	6:35 PM CDT	F0	Winnebago	0.1	13
June 6	7:21 PM CDT	F1	Cerro Gordo	3.5	40	$50,000 to $500,000
June 6	8:41 PM CDT	F0	Hardin	0.2	10	$500 to $5,000

July 5 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 5	1:39 PM CDT	F1	Chickasaw	8.0	40			$50,000 to $500,000

July 14 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 14	8:35 PM CDT	F0	Woodbury	3.0	50			$500 to $5,000

July 19 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 19	5:20 PM CDT	F0	Dickinson	4.0	10			$5,000 to $50,000

July 27 11 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
July 27	3:50 PM CDT	F3	Buchanan	20.0	150	$500,000 to $5 million
July 27	4:55 PM CDT	F0	Cedar	0.1	20
July 27	5:18 PM CDT	F0	Cedar	0.1	23	$500 to $5,000
July 27	5:21 PM CDT	F0	Jones	0.1	23	$500 to $5,000
July 27	5:28 PM CDT	F2	Clinton	10.5	70	$50,000 to $500,000
July 27	5:42 PM CDT	F2	Clinton	5.5	60	$5,000 to $50,000
July 27	5:49 PM CDT	F2	Clinton to IL	20.0	400	$50,000 to $500,000
July 27	5:54 PM CDT	F0	Clinton	0.3	33	$500 to $5,000
July 27	6:45 PM CDT	F0	Linn	0.1	23	$500 to $5,000
July 27	7:45 PM CDT	F0	Muscatine	0.5	30	$500 to $5,000
July 27	7:51 PM CDT	F2	Cedar	7.5	100	$50,000 to $500,000

August 4 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 4	6:35 PM CDT	F0	Lyon	0.1	10

August 13 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 13	9:44 PM CDT	F0	Emmet	0.2	23			$500 to $5,000

Crossed into Iowa

Tornadoes that touched down in a neighboring state and ran into Iowa. They are counted under the state they began in.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 27	10:03 PM CDT	F3	Harrison, MO to IA	30.4	150			$50,000 to $500,000

Nearby

Every tornado in Iowa since 1950 Warnings in force in Iowa The live radar over Iowa

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.