Tornadoes · United States · Iowa

2011 tornadoes in Iowa

51 tornadoes touched down in Iowa in 2011, 26 percent above the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody. 1 were rated F4 or EF4 and above.

2010 2012 The whole country in 2011

The rating scale

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

EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
EF2111 to 135 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.
EF3136 to 165 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
EF5over 200 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 2011

March 22 8 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
March 22	5:00 PM CDT	EF1	Harrison	11.7	100	2
March 22	5:30 PM CDT	EF1	Cass	2.8	250		$150,000
March 22	5:33 PM CDT	EF0	Adams	3.1	80
March 22	5:42 PM CDT	EF0	Adair	1.0	30
March 22	5:47 PM CDT	EF0	Shelby	1.0	40
March 22	6:16 PM CDT	EF0	Union	2.0	100
March 22	6:18 PM CDT	EF2	Madison	10.0	1,410		$1.0 million
March 22	7:11 PM CDT	EF0	Madison	0.2	25

April 9 20 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
April 9	7:20 PM CDT	EF3	Monona	3.4	1,200	14
April 9	7:37 PM CDT	EF1	Crawford	0.7	75		$25,000
April 9	8:20 PM CDT	EF2	Ida	4.1	440		$50,000
April 9	8:23 PM CDT	EF3	Sac	10.1	1,760		$2.0 million
April 9	8:29 PM CDT	EF2	Sac	8.3	660		$1.0 million
April 9	8:38 PM CDT	EF0	Sac	0.6	100		$1,000
April 9	8:42 PM CDT	EF1	Ida	4.2	200		$100,000
April 9	9:08 PM CDT	EF3	Sac	29.4	2,640		$13 million
April 9	9:14 PM CDT	EF0	Buena Vista	0.5	50
April 9	9:20 PM CDT	EF1	Cherokee	5.2	300		$100,000
April 9	9:24 PM CDT	EF2	Sac	1.6	220		$510,000
April 9	9:25 PM CDT	EF1	Buena Vista	1.1	150		$10,000
April 9	9:50 PM CDT	EF0	Buena Vista	0.2	50
April 9	9:50 PM CDT	EF0	Buena Vista	0.2	50
April 9	9:54 PM CDT	EF4	Pocahontas	3.2	587		$2.5 million
April 9	9:55 PM CDT	EF1	Pocahontas	1.6	100		$10,000
April 9	9:55 PM CDT	EF1	Pocahontas	1.6	100		$10,000
April 9	9:56 PM CDT	EF2	Pocahontas	0.9	146		$100,000
April 9	10:08 PM CDT	EF1	Pocahontas	2.4	250		$10,000
April 9	11:19 PM CDT	EF1	Kossuth	0.8	100		$150,000

May 11 6 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 11	4:20 PM CDT	EF0	Taylor	0.2	30
May 11	4:38 PM CDT	EF1	Taylor	0.7	440	$5.0 million
May 11	4:45 PM CDT	EF1	Taylor	1.0	400	$10 million
May 11	4:58 PM CDT	EF0	Adams	0.4	30
May 11	6:53 PM CDT	EF0	Sioux	0.5	50
May 11	7:07 PM CDT	EF0	Osceola	0.5	50

May 22 6 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
May 22	2:33 PM CDT	EF2	Howard to MN	28.7	250	3	$775,000
May 22	2:40 PM CDT	EF2	Iowa	3.9	75		$250,000
May 22	2:54 PM CDT	EF0	Iowa	2.0	25		$10,000
May 22	3:13 PM CDT	EF0	Bremer	0.1	30
May 22	3:37 PM CDT	EF1	Fayette	7.9	70		$175,000
May 22	4:01 PM CDT	EF0	Fayette	1.4	50		$10,000

May 25 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 25	4:45 PM CDT	EF1	Des Moines	4.8	100			$250,000
May 25	5:00 PM CDT	EF1	Des Moines	3.6	50			$50,000

June 19 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 19	3:00 PM CDT	EF0	Winnebago	0.2	30

June 20 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
June 20	4:59 AM CDT	EF1	Mahaska	0.3	75	$150,000
June 20	8:45 PM CDT	EF1	Monona	7.1	300
June 20	9:40 PM CDT	EF0	Plymouth	0.9	100	$20,000
June 20	11:22 PM CDT	EF1	Kossuth	1.2	75	$200,000

June 21 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 21	1:15 AM CDT	EF0	Tama	0.8	30			$75,000

June 26 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 26	7:55 PM CDT	EF0	Harrison	3.6	100
June 26	8:40 PM CDT	EF1	Carroll	2.4	100			$100,000

July 11 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 11	2:52 AM CDT	EF0	Webster	2.2	50

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 22	2:33 PM CDT	EF1	Price, WI to IA, MN	3.3	600			$4,000

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.