For a book that has been out of print for over 20 years, I recently recieved a copy of Tornado Accounts of Tornadoes in Iowa Second Edition by John L Stanford (former Professor at Iowa State). The book (Second Edition) was written and compiled in 1987. (A first Edition was written in 1977). This is an interesting read, even though I had checked this book out of libraries for years, but now that I have a copy all my own, I can enjoy the book for years to come. The book begins with a look at the Belmond tornado of 1966 (which the blog covered back in October). Then it moves on to how tornadoes are formed and their characterisitics. Then it moves to Noteworthy tornadoes of Iowa’s past including numerous deadly tornadoes (Examples include, Camanche 1860, Pomeroy 1893, Grinnell in 1882, Charles City and Oelwein 1968, etc) Pictures (albeit black and white) show numerous tornadoes from Iowa’s past, from the massive wedges to the tiny ropelike. Then it moves on to Tornado Safety. This is where the book can be a tad outdated given the time this was written, but most of the rules still work. The book is very hard to find now. I found my copy through Amazon. Otherwise numerous libraries might have this book on the shelf (Either the First or Second Edition or both in some instances)
The only problem is that there hasn’t been another book since the mid 80s and there’s been numerous significant tornadoes to hit the state since then.