The Iowa Tornado Outbreak of 2005 occurred on Saturday November 12th, 2005. Temperatures were in the low 60s on Saturday. A vigorous system moved eastward from the plains. The SPC had a slight risk of severe weather for most of Iowa that day. Thunderstorms began early in the afternoon and by 4pm the storms began rotating. Tornadoes touched down in …
Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940
The Armistice Day Blizzard occurred on November 11th 1940. Now known as Veterans day, this blizzard was not well forecasted. Prior to this storm unusally warm weather was occurring with temperatures in the 50s and 60s, many hunters went out hunting given the warm weather and ideal conditions. Drastic temperature swings occurred with temperatures dropping from the 50s and 60s …
Halloween Blizzard of 1991
This wasn’t even the biggest weather event of Halloween 1991. The “Perfect Storm” was occurring in New England at this time, but due to that storm there was a blocking pattern going on throughout the United States, thus a storm in the middle of the country could not move east. So it moved north from near Houston to Burlington IA …
A Look Back on October 1997
October 1997 will best be remembered for having 3 seasons in one whole month in Iowa. At the beginning of October, record highs in the mid 90s occurred. Cedar Rapids recorded 94° on October 3rd which broke not only the record for the date but also the warmest temperature for the month of October, Dubuque did the same with 90°, …
Belmond Tornado of 1966
Continuing with historical Autumn weather events, this post reflects on the only F5 tornado to occur in Iowa in the fall. The Belmond Tornado of October 14th 1966. It occurred on Homecoming, Belmond was to play Lake Mills that night in football. The homecoming parade had just ended when the sky began to darken to the west. The large tornado …
No Peace on Peace Avenue
5 years ago on Sunday, the day dawned clear but quickly clouds rolled into Cedar Rapids off a thunderstorm complex in southern Minnesota. That complex fizzled as it moved into Iowa leaving hazy skies and a wind from the northwest. As the day progressed the winds went back to the south, temperatures went into the mid 80s with dew points …
Go West! The Churdan Tornado of 1969
On July 16, 1969, attention had been on Apollo 11’s launch toward an eventual landing on the moon, however that afternoon in the small town of Churdan in northern Greene County, there was more attention to the weather than the Apollo Mission. The day was very warm and humid, with temperatures near 90 and dew points well into the 70s. …
The Tornadoes at Algona and Manson
Tornadoes in the midwest mainly come from the southwest and move toward the northeast, but at least 1/3 of them move from northwest to the southeast. This was the case on June 28, 1979, when 27 tornadoes dropped out of the sky and moved mainly in a northwest to southeast pattern. The first tornado of the outbreak occurred at 1:45pm …
Palm Sunday 1965
Although this tornado outbreak mainly effected areas to the east of Iowa, its start was in the eastern part of the state. A Low pressure center was located over central Iowa on the morning of April 11th 1965. A Warm front extended eastward along northern Illinois, northern Indiana into Ohio. By midday, the first tornado of the outbreak formed near …