Iowa Experiences First January Tornado Since 1967

Posted: January 17, 2023 at 6:40 am

It seems like crazy weather events are a common these days, and yesterday we had one of those events.  Williamsburg experienced an EF-1 tornado yesterday as strong storms rolled through the southern part of the state of Iowa.  This the first time since 1967 that Iowa had tornados in January.

NWS Des Moines looks back on the tornado outbreak from January 24th, 1967, when 13 tornados struck southeast Iowa.

‘There were at least 13 tornadoes in Iowa with many of these producing significant F2 or F3 damage. Two tornadoes struck Lee County resulting in 10 injuries, and one of those tornadoes produced F3 damage and killed a young child just west of Fort Madison. Another tornado produced F4 damage just across the border in northeastern Missouri before entering Davis County. Later that evening, a strong cold front swept across the state and by the 26^th, snow fell across about the southern half of Iowa with snowfall amounts ranging up to 13.5 inches at Burlington, only two days removed from the significant tornado outbreak in the same area. This likely made for a difficult clean-up and storm damage assessment.”