Tornadoes · United States · Iowa

1996 tornadoes in Iowa

22 tornadoes touched down in Iowa in 1996, 46 percent below the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

1995 1997 The whole country in 1996

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 1996

March 24 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 24	4:15 PM CST	F0	Union	0.1	20			$30,000

April 19 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 19	8:17 PM CDT	F0	Jackson	0.1	10			$10,000
April 19	8:17 PM CDT	F0	Clinton	0.2	25

May 9 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
May 9	1:50 AM CDT	F1	Appanoose	0.7	35		$70,000
May 9	2:40 AM CDT	F1	Davis	2.0	50		$70,000
May 9	3:47 AM CDT	F0	Monroe	1.0	30		$10,000
May 9	12:36 AM CDT	F1	Monroe	1.5	60	2	$380,000

May 10 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 10	2:40 AM CDT	F1	Clinton	5.0	100			$1.0 million

May 19 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 19	6:30 PM CDT	F0	Marshall	0.1	25

May 27 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 27	2:50 PM CDT	F1	Taylor	0.3	45	$2,000
May 27	2:55 PM CDT	F0	Ringgold	0.1	25
May 27	3:34 PM CDT	F0	Decatur	0.1	25

June 16 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
June 16	3:50 PM CDT	F0	Bremer	10.0	20	$1,000
June 16	6:21 PM CDT	F0	Fayette	6.0	20
June 16	7:58 PM CDT	F0	Dubuque	0.1	10

June 29 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 29	9:35 PM CDT	F0	Benton	0.3	20

July 1 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 1	5:40 PM CDT	F0	Plymouth	0.1	50

July 16 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 16	12:58 AM CDT	F0	Carroll	0.2	25

July 24 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 24	3:21 PM CDT	F1	Pottawattamie	1.0	30			$100,000

July 29 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 29	4:37 PM CDT	F0	Greene	0.3	25

August 19 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 19	7:00 PM CDT	F0	Howard	0.5	50

August 22 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 22	4:30 PM CDT	F0	Cedar	0.3	20

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.