2023 Iowa Tornadoes

Above is a map of the tornadoes that occurred across Iowa in 2023. Mouse over each icon to view more information on that tornado, which will appear in the box to the right. A season summary and table of these tornadoes is provided below. Detailed KMZ files for many of the tracks can be downloaded and viewed in Google Earth by clicking on the appropriate icon in the table below. To download the full year map shown above, click the download button below.

Please note: Track lines and contours are often interpolated and may not encompass the full extent of the damage. Surveying procedures vary between NWS offices. Downloadable tracks may not be available for weak tornadoes that were not surveyed.

*EFU - EF Unknown rating. This is used in instances that a tornado does not impact damage indicators used to assigned an EF rating.

     The 2023 tornado season had the earliest start of any season dating back to when tornado records began in 1950.  Two tornadoes occurred on January 16th in eastern Iowa.  The first started just northeast of Williamsburg in Iowa county and tracked quickly northeast, remaining in rural areas.  There was some minor damage to a farmstead along with a couple of trees blown down.  The 2nd tornado occurred in Linn County northwest of Ely and was on the ground only briefly.  This tornado produced no damage as it remained in open fields.   This is also only the 2nd year tornadoes have been reported in January, the other being 1967.   The season then took off dramatically on March 31st when an outbreak of tornadoes occurred across mostly eastern Iowa.  A total of 25 tornadoes touched down on that day which is the most ever for any day in March.  Several strong to violent tornadoes occurred with 9 EF2’s, one EF3 and one EF4 with the rest of the tornadoes being of EF1 strength or less.   A total of 11 injuries occurred on that day but fortunately there were no fatalities.  

     April saw only five tornadoes with four of them occurring on April 19th in western Iowa.  The month of May ended up with 19 tornadoes, however most of them were weak tornadoes which remained in open cropland or other rural locations.  June only saw two weak tornadoes with both of them occurring on June 24th.  This continued a trend since 2018 of relatively few tornadoes in what is usually the most active month of the year.  Nine tornadoes touched down in July on two different days.  The bulk of these occurred in the pre-dawn hours of July 12th with six tornadoes in west central Iowa.   The remaining ten tornadoes for 2023 were spread out in August (6), September (2) and October (2) with little if any damage occurring with these events.  

     Overall, the total number of tornadoes for 2023 was 72 which is a little more than 20 above normal.  The outbreak on March 31st was by far the most impressive event for the year with all the injuries in 2023 occurring on that day.   The longest tornado path for the year was just over 26 miles which started northeast of Ottumwa and ended to the southwest of Keota.  This tornado was also the widest of the year with a diameter of around 1000 yards or a little more than one half mile wide at a few locations along its path.