All of Iowa, Year in Review

Year in Review: Tornadoes

The NWS in Des Moines has compiled the list of tornadoes in Iowa for 2008. The data can be accessed here. It shows that Iowa had 105 tornadoes for 2008, of which 60 were classified as EF0’s 36 as EF1’s, 6 EF2’s, 2 EF3’s and of course Parkersburg’s EF5. Only two tornadoes this year were deadly, (Parkersburg and Little Sioux) and only 5 tornadoes produced an injury. In all 12 people died from tornadoes this year and 133 people were injured. In a monthly breakdown of the tornadoes, June had the most with 48 followed by May with 25, April with 16, July with 12 and August with 4. The average track of the tornadoes in Iowa this year tabulated to just under 4 miles (3.88 to be exact) with the total track mileage being 407.2 miles. To put that into perspective, that’s just over the distance from Kansas City MO to Wisconsin Dells WI. (400 miles) The longest tracked tornado was the Parkersburg EF5 at a hair under 41 miles, with the Fairbank tornado (this tornado formed from the same thunderstorm as the Parkersburg tornado) second at just under 32 miles. Ten tornadoes had tracks over 10 miles, while 40 tornadoes had tracks under 1 mile.