Iowa Breaks a Record It Hopes to Never Break Again
The state of Iowa broke a 20-year-old record this year and it's a record that Iowans would be perfectly fine with never breaking again.
The worst part about this record-setting year is we're only 2/3rds of the way through 2024. There is still plenty of time for the state of Iowa to add to this total tornado count, which is pretty scary.
The previous record was 120 tornadoes in 2004 and as of August 17th, Iowa has seen more than 120. According to We Are Iowa, a preliminary count shows that we've seen 122 tornadoes in 2024.
Year-to-Year Comparisons
Comparing the number of tornadoes each year can be somewhat difficult because there are factors that have possibly influenced higher tornado counts in recent years.
NWS Des Moines shared on social media that 2024 has recorded the most EF-3s and the most EF-4s since 1999. 2024 has also recorded the most EF-0/U, and the most EF-1s on record for a single year. EF-U is an "unknown rating for tornadoes that do not strike a damaged indicator, making it impossible to rate the strength of the tornado on the current EF scale."
According to We Are Iowa, April and May were incredibly busy tornado months. They tied for the third-most tornadoes in any month in Iowa with 49. April also broke the previous 2001 April record of 40.
Minden experienced a 1.1-mile-wide tornado, which is the widest tornado ever, and Greenfield experienced a deadly tornado that ran 42.4 miles long. This is the longest tornado in Iowa's history.
Peak tornado season in Iowa is generally in May and June. Iowans are far too familiar with tornadoes happening in August through November. Hopefully, this number doesn't increase and we don't shatter the previous record for tornadoes in a single year but the sad fact is...we are probably going to blow past this previous record.
This is a record that Iowa hopes to never come close to again.