Audubon County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Audubon County: 0.
2. Weak tornadoes were under-recorded before Doppler radar coverage became national in the early 1990s, so earlier decades read low. Ratings use the Fujita scale before February 2007 and the Enhanced Fujita scale after.

Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, 1950 to 2025.

Smoke overhead

1. A smoke day is a date on which a smoke plume traced by NOAA Hazard Mapping System analysts from satellite imagery covered this place's point (the county's population centre or the city centre). Counts here are of medium or heavy smoke. Since 2018 analysts have often drawn light smoke as one area over most of the continent, so light-smoke counts are not comparable from year to year. The plumes show smoke anywhere in the air above, not air quality at the ground, and smoke hidden by cloud is missed.

NOAA Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, 2011 to 2026, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Claims by ZIP code

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026. NOAA Storm Events through 2026.

1. The Palmer Drought Severity Index is computed by NOAA each month from the county's average temperature and precipitation, relative to the county's own climate. Zero is normal; -3 or lower is severe drought and -4 or lower extreme drought. It describes the long-term balance of moisture, not water supply or crop losses.

NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, 1895 to September 2026, issued October 6, 2026.

Costliest events since 1996

1. Aug 1, 2003Drought, Audubon$12.7 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Dry weather settled in over Iowa during the month. The last widespread rain occurred on 09 July. With the increasingly dry conditions became a primary concern as the month progressed. An extended period of heat and humidity from the 15th to 25th saw highs into the 90s to over 100 degrees F. in some locations. By month's end drought indices had worsened to severe to extreme drought across south central Iowa and at least moderate drought over the remainder of the HSA. Waterloo had its driest August on record, Des Moines its 3rd driest and Ottumwa its 8th driest. A cold front brought only a brief respite from the intense heat, as temperatures rebounded into the 90s to near 100…

2. Dec 23, 2009Ice Storm, Audubon$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Part 1 of 2: A major winter storm system affected the central U.S. during Christmas week. There were two upper level systems involved with this storm. The southern stream low dove into the southern U.S. and then turned northeast. The turn was sharper than is typical as the northern stream upper low pushed southeast. The southern stream and polar low interacted with each other, resulting in a Fuji Wara effect. The southern low turned north, then eventually northwest and moved from northern Louisiana into Iowa. This resulted in a considerable amount of warm air being drawn north over Iowa. Cold air remained in place at the surface due to an existing deep snow cover over most of the…

3. Jan 20, 2010Ice Storm, Audubon$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A strong push of warm air aloft took place over the central U.S. with 850 mb temperatures warming well above zero C over much of the state. During the day on the 19th a relatively strong high moved southeast to the east of Iowa. The easterly flow of cool air in the low levels established a strong inversion over the state. Surface temperatures fell into the teens and 20s in the cool easterly flow. A strong weather system from the southwest U.S. moved east across the southern half of the country during the night of the 19th into the daytime hours of the 20th. The low passed south of Iowa, however a strong push of warm and moist air moved into Iowa during the early morning of the…

4. Oct 26, 1997Heavy Snow, Audubon$640,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The first major winter storm of the season developed over the central Rockies as a powerful upper level jet stream dove into the southern Rockies. Intense low pressure developed over northern Oklahoma, then drifted northeast on the early morning of the 26th. A cold high pressure of Arctic origin was poised to the north of Iowa. The high gradually pushed cold air south into the central U.S. causing the precipitation on the northwest edge of the storm system to change to snow. During the early morning hours, the system went convective with widespread "thundersnow" reported over the south half of Iowa. Lightning struck a tree outside of a house in Nevada causing damage to electrical…

5. Jun 14, 1998Flood, Audubon$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   After a brief lull from the rain on the 12th, a large mesoscale convective system developed near the center of an upper level low pressure center over southwest Iowa during the early morning hours of the 14th. Extremely heavy rain fell over southwest and central Iowa from this storm. The rain gage at Atlantic had a 24 hour total rainfall of 13.18 inches. This established a new official record for the greatest amount of rainfall in a 24 hour period. Cass County was covered by a large area of 4 to 8 inch rains, which essentially submerged the entire county. The east Fork of the Nishnabotna at Atlantic 5 SW crested on the 15th at 22.36 feet, missing the all-time record set in…

6. Nov 10, 1998High Wind, Audubon$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Iowa experienced the worst November storm system since the great storm of 9 and 10 November 1975. During the 9th, low pressure developed over southeast Colorado. The low moved across Kansas during the afternoon and evening of the 9th and deepened to about 990 mb. Warm and moist air was drawn north ahead of the low resulting in widespread across the state. Thunderstorms erupted during the late evening of the 9th, though no severe weather occurred. During the predawn hours of the 10th, a jet streak rotated around the base of the upper level low pressure area. The jet stream, combined with a tropospheric fold, resulted in explosive deepening of the low. As the low moved through…

7. Jun 24, 2013Thunderstorm Wind$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Winds lasted 30 minutes in the Audubon area. Tree limbs 4 to 5 inches in diameter were down, corn flattened, town totally without electricity. A farmstead lost 2 buildings southwest of town.

8. May 6, 2007Flood$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A very strong upper level low pressure trough had carved out over the western U.S. Iowa was in the strong southwest flow on the front side of this system. A surface warm front lifted north into southwest Iowa during the evening of the 5th. The airmass became quite unstable with plenty of deep moisture advection into the areas. Precipitable water values were in the 1.5 to 1.75 inch range by midnight. The lifted index fell to the -6 to -8 C. There was a reasonable amount of CAPE available with about 2500 J/kg at the onset of the event. The LCL was around 1000 meters and the freezing level was a relatively high 13,500 feet. With the warm front in the vicinity, there was a…

9. Feb 24, 2007Winter Storm, Audubon$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A major winter storm affected Iowa through the 24th and 25th of February. A powerful upper low moved onto the west coast during the middle of the week, and advanced east through the Rockies during the end of the week. Strong warm air advection took place over the top of a shallow polar airmass that was in place over Iowa. The east-southeasterly flow at the surface drew cool and dry air into the state from the east, setting the stage for a significant ice storm. The main area of precipitation overspread the state during the early morning hours of the 24th and persisted through much of the 25th. Initially, very warm air aloft meant that the precipitation fell in the form of freezing…

10. Apr 25, 2007Flood$250,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A strong low pressure developed over eastern Colorado and moved southeast into northern Oklahoma by the 24th. Deep moisture was pulled north ahead of the low with surface dew points in the low 70s reaching northern Oklahoma. Strong isentropic lift took place over the Des Moines CWA and resulted in a large and sustained area of rain and embedded thunderstorms. Rainfall of two to over five inches of rainfall occurred over a large part of the CWA, with isolated amounts in the six to seven inch range over a 2 day period. This event brought about the flash flooding event of the evening of the 24th. The situation transitioned into a general areal flood event on the 25th, with several…

1. Storm Events records before 1996 cover only tornadoes, thunderstorm wind and hail. Damage figures are as reported by the National Weather Service at the time, not adjusted for inflation.

NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, 1950 to 2026, issued October 26, 2026.

All-time high

113°FJul 25, 1936

All-time low

−35°FFeb 2, 1905

Warmest night

81°FAug 28, 1984

Coldest day

−15°FJan 12, 1912

Wettest day

12.53 inJul 2, 1958

Snowiest day

16.0 inDec 9, 2009

Hottest year

1931mean 53.6°F

Coldest year

1951mean 43.7°F

Wettest year

201552.68 in

Driest year

193018.69 in

Snowiest season

69.7 in1961-62

Station Audubon (USC00130385), 1,280 ft elevation, 2.1 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1893 to October 27, 2026; 97.1% of days in the last 30 years are complete. Records at a single station can differ from a city’s official threaded record, which may combine several stations.

NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily.

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries, retrieved October 30, 2026. Statewide declarations are not listed.

Neighbouring counties

• Tornadoes NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, through 2025.
• Tropical cyclones NOAA National Hurricane Center HURDAT2 (Atlantic; Northeast and Central Pacific), through 2025.
• Wildfire USGS/USFS Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity, through 2026.
• Storm events NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, through 2026.
• Flood insurance OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026.
• Declarations OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Weather records NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily, station USC00130385.
• River crests NOAA National Weather Service, National Water Prediction Service river gauges, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Drought NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, through September 2026.
• Smoke NOAA NESDIS Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Earthquakes USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat), retrieved October 30, 2026.

Joins, thresholds and known limits are set out in the methodology. Found an error? Report it. Page built October 30, 2026.