Tornadoes · United States · Iowa

2021 tornadoes in Iowa

119 tornadoes touched down in Iowa in 2021, 194 percent above the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

2020 2022 The whole country in 2021

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 2021

March 23 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 23	7:19 PM CDT	EF0	Lee	0.1	30

April 7 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 7	8:36 PM CDT	EF0	Linn	0.7	40		1

May 15 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 15	4:35 PM CDT	Unrated	Calhoun	0.3	30
May 15	5:49 PM CDT	EF0	Howard	0.3	15

May 20 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 20	9:04 PM CDT	Unrated	Madison	0.5	30
May 20	9:44 PM CDT	EF0	Dallas	1.9	50

June 20 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 20	6:40 PM CDT	EF1	Marion	1.5	150			$10,000
June 20	8:06 PM CDT	EF1	Dubuque	3.4	30

July 14 25 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
July 14	3:52 PM CDT	EF3	Calhoun	10.8	505	$2.5 million
July 14	4:05 PM CDT	EF0	Hamilton	8.8	50	$2,000
July 14	4:21 PM CDT	EF1	Hamilton	8.9	160	$10,000
July 14	4:46 PM CDT	Unrated	Webster	0.3	30
July 14	4:57 PM CDT	Unrated	Butler	1.2	50
July 14	5:11 PM CDT	Unrated	Sac	0.6	25
July 14	5:16 PM CDT	EF2	Butler	12.9	630	$1.3 million
July 14	5:34 PM CDT	EF1	Floyd	12.0	60	$60,000
July 14	5:35 PM CDT	Unrated	Sac	0.8	30
July 14	5:52 PM CDT	EF0	Cerro Gordo	5.1	225	$10,000
July 14	6:12 PM CDT	EF0	Bremer	2.5	150	$1,000
July 14	6:43 PM CDT	EF0	Buchanan	3.2	30	$275,000
July 14	7:05 PM CDT	EF1	Tama	5.7	590	$25,000
July 14	7:10 PM CDT	Unrated	Buchanan	0.1	10
July 14	7:36 PM CDT	Unrated	Benton	0.1	10
July 14	7:50 PM CDT	EF1	Delaware	1.4	40
July 14	7:54 PM CDT	EF1	Delaware	1.1	30
July 14	7:56 PM CDT	Unrated	Benton	0.1	10
July 14	8:07 PM CDT	Unrated	Benton	0.1	10
July 14	8:50 PM CDT	Unrated	Linn	0.1	10
July 14	8:52 PM CDT	Unrated	Linn	0.1	10
July 14	9:40 PM CDT	Unrated	Delaware	0.4	10
July 14	9:44 PM CDT	EF1	Jones	1.8	40
July 14	10:02 PM CDT	EF1	Jones	8.0	30
July 14	10:30 PM CDT	EF1	Jones	3.1	30

August 8 8 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
August 8	4:36 PM CDT	Unrated	Osceola	0.8	40
August 8	4:47 PM CDT	EF0	Osceola	2.4	50	$10,000
August 8	8:12 PM CDT	Unrated	Buena Vista	0.3	20
August 8	11:00 PM CDT	Unrated	Webster	1.6	150
August 8	11:19 PM CDT	Unrated	Webster	1.7	150
August 8	11:47 PM CDT	Unrated	Webster	1.9	160
August 8	12:02 AM CDT	Unrated	Webster	1.4	40
August 8	12:06 AM CDT	Unrated	Webster	0.5	15

August 11 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 11	5:40 PM CDT	EF0	Dubuque	0.6	20

August 20 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
August 20	3:34 PM CDT	EF0	Osceola	3.6	30	$30,000
August 20	8:03 PM CDT	Unrated	Pocahontas	1.2	20
August 20	8:19 PM CDT	Unrated	Humboldt	2.2	60
August 20	9:05 PM CDT	EF0	Wright	4.0	190

August 27 5 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
August 27	5:06 PM CDT	EF0	Cerro Gordo	2.1	250	$1,000
August 27	5:35 PM CDT	Unrated	Cerro Gordo	2.0	110	$1,000
August 27	5:50 PM CDT	EF0	Floyd	1.3	140
August 27	5:51 PM CDT	EF0	Floyd	2.2	90	$10,000
August 27	5:57 PM CDT	EF1	Floyd	6.4	300	$280,000

December 15 68 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
December 15	4:14 PM CST	EF1	Mills	10.0	100
December 15	4:15 PM CST	Unrated	Woodbury	0.8	20
December 15	4:16 PM CST	EF0	Pottawattamie	0.9	30
December 15	4:20 PM CST	EF1	Woodbury	4.6	75	$250,000
December 15	4:24 PM CST	EF2	Pottawattamie	2.3	50
December 15	4:25 PM CST	EF2	Woodbury	8.4	100	$500,000
December 15	4:31 PM CST	EF1	Mills	0.6	50
December 15	4:31 PM CST	EF2	Pottawattamie	6.7	75
December 15	4:34 PM CST	EF1	Pottawattamie	9.6	50
December 15	4:35 PM CST	EF1	Woodbury	4.3	75	$200,000
December 15	4:39 PM CST	EF1	Plymouth	3.7	75	$50,000
December 15	4:42 PM CST	EF1	Ida	13.0	75	$200,000
December 15	4:48 PM CST	Unrated	Crawford	4.4	50
December 15	4:49 PM CST	EF2	Cass	27.1	100	$350,000
December 15	4:58 PM CST	EF0	Ida	2.9	50	$75,000
December 15	4:59 PM CST	EF1	Cherokee	11.2	250	$1.0 million
December 15	5:00 PM CST	Unrated	Cherokee	1.8	50
December 15	5:00 PM CST	EF1	Cass	11.4	80	$100,000
December 15	5:01 PM CST	EF1	Buena Vista	6.4	75	$200,000
December 15	5:05 PM CST	EF1	Cherokee	3.8	75	$250,000
December 15	5:07 PM CST	EF1	Buena Vista	6.9	150	$100,000
December 15	5:08 PM CST	EF1	O'Brien	3.9	100	$50,000
December 15	5:10 PM CST	EF1	Guthrie	11.4	70	$100,000
December 15	5:13 PM CST	EF2	Sac	17.6	100	$150,000
December 15	5:14 PM CST	EF2	Guthrie	19.7	100	$450,000
December 15	5:18 PM CST	EF2	Buena Vista	4.8	100	$250,000
December 15	5:19 PM CST	EF1	Carroll	9.7	80	$80,000
December 15	5:21 PM CST	EF2	Guthrie	30.0	300	$470,000
December 15	5:27 PM CST	EF2	Guthrie	23.4	150	$801,000
December 15	5:29 PM CST	EF2	Greene	5.5	100	$1.2 million
December 15	5:32 PM CST	EF2	Greene	5.8	100	$500,000
December 15	5:34 PM CST	Unrated	Calhoun	1.3	40
December 15	5:34 PM CST	EF2	Greene	2.7	70	$20,000
December 15	5:35 PM CST	EF1	Calhoun	19.0	100	$20,000
December 15	5:39 PM CST	EF2	Greene	17.7	125	$30,000
December 15	5:39 PM CST	EF1	Dickinson	4.0	50	$200,000
December 15	5:40 PM CST	EF2	Calhoun	18.0	80	$100,000
December 15	5:41 PM CST	EF1	Palo Alto	11.2	90	$60,000
December 15	5:42 PM CST	EF2	Greene	18.8	150	$225,000
December 15	5:43 PM CST	Unrated	Pocahontas	1.0	40
December 15	5:49 PM CST	EF2	Boone	16.3	125	$105,000
December 15	5:50 PM CST	Unrated	Pocahontas	7.1	80
December 15	5:55 PM CST	EF2	Hamilton	12.1	100	$180,000
December 15	5:58 PM CST	EF1	Humboldt	4.2	80	$30,000
December 15	6:00 PM CST	EF2	Webster	5.5	80	$75,000
December 15	6:01 PM CST	EF0	Hamilton	7.6	80	$70,000
December 15	6:01 PM CST	EF0	Hamilton	8.8	70	$10,000
December 15	6:19 PM CST	EF2	Wright	5.9	70	$150,000
December 15	6:25 PM CST	EF2	Wright	16.7	100	$105,000
December 15	6:26 PM CST	EF1	Hardin	13.0	125	$5,000
December 15	6:27 PM CST	EF1	Hardin	22.2	140	$35,000
December 15	6:28 PM CST	EF0	Wright	5.2	60	$500
December 15	6:38 PM CST	EF1	Franklin	6.0	80	$100,000
December 15	6:40 PM CST	EF2	Franklin	7.5	90	$250,000
December 15	6:44 PM CST	EF0	Cerro Gordo	2.9	40	$500
December 15	6:48 PM CST	EF1	Winnebago to MN	2.9	90	$50,000
December 15	6:53 PM CST	EF1	Butler	4.2	200	$10,000
December 15	6:54 PM CST	EF0	Cerro Gordo	3.5	60	$500
December 15	6:58 PM CST	EF0	Worth	9.1	80	$5,000
December 15	6:59 PM CST	EF1	Floyd	6.7	80	$490,000
December 15	7:01 PM CST	EF0	Jasper	6.3	100	$50,000
December 15	7:06 PM CST	EF1	Floyd	1.8	65	$1.1 million
December 15	7:09 PM CST	EF0	Worth to MN	2.6	50	$15,000
December 15	7:15 PM CST	EF1	Chickasaw	4.0	180	$255,000
December 15	7:17 PM CST	EF0	Chickasaw	5.0	50	$420,000
December 15	7:23 PM CST	EF0	Howard	5.9	45	$90,000
December 15	7:29 PM CST	EF0	Howard	4.4	45	$600,000
December 15	7:31 PM CST	EF0	Howard	4.6	90	$250,000

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.