Benton County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Benton County: 1.
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.

Every large fire

1. Large fires mapped by the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity program since 1984: 1,000 acres or more in the West, 500 or more in the East. Prescribed burns are excluded. Acres here are the part of each perimeter inside this place.

Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service), 1984 to 2026.

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.

River crests

River gauges

1. Crests are the highest and the recent crests the National Weather Service lists for each river gauge in the county that has a flood stage, not every flood. Flood categories use each gauge's current flood stages; crests from before levees, dams or channel changes may not be comparable. Crests measured on an old datum are left out of the rankings.

NOAA National Water Prediction Service gauge records, retrieved October 30, 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.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Jun 1, 2008Flood$10.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The record crest on the Cedar River at Vinton occurred on June 12, 2008 at 24.60 feet. Flood stage is 15 feet.

2. Feb 24, 2007Ice Storm, Benton$2.1 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A widespread and crippling ice/snow storm affected eastern Iowa, northwest and western Illinois, and extreme northeast Missouri on February 24, 2007. This massive ice storm was the worst to affect the region since January 22-23, 1965. Ice accumulations of around one inch were common, with some reports to near two inches! To make matters worse, east winds gusting over 50 mph, combined with the heavy ice accumulation, brought down numerous tree branches and power lines, along with several thousand power poles. There were even whole trees crashing down from the weight of the ice. Widespread power outages occurred, affecting over 180,000 people, which lasted more than a week in some…

3. Jul 11, 2011Thunderstorm Wind$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Wind gusts estimated to be 120 mph caused significant damage throughout the town of Vinton, IA at 500 am CDT July 11. Hundreds of trees and power lines were blown down throughout the area and several cars and buildings were damaged. The Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School was heavily damaged. The Old Main building on campus will need a new roof. A smokestack at the hospital was blown off punching a gaping hole in the side of the rehabilitation center. Several buildings in Vinton sustained massive damage, including the A.S.A.C. building, Kruger's Barber Shop, the Pioneer Seed building, Mickey's Bar, Phillips funeral home and the Hummel Apartments.

4. May 10, 2003Hail$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A strong spring storm system moved through the Mississippi valley during the late afternoon and evening hours producing widespread severe weather. In an unprecedented move, WFO Quad Cities held a press conference the day before to warn of a high probability of significant tornadoes in the afternoon and evening hours of Saturday May 10th, with the area most at risk south of a Keosauqua, Iowa to Princeton, Illinois line. Supercell thunderstorms developed and continued into the evening hours spawning several long track tornadoes and produced copious amounts of large hail. Luckily, most of the tornado tracks were in open country and therefore damage was minimized.

5. Jul 11, 2011Thunderstorm Wind$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Wind gusts estimated to be 120 mph caused significant damage in Garrison, IA around 455 am CDT July 11. The fire station was destroyed. The roof of the library blew off. About 80 percent of the structures in town were damaged with significant damage to about 20 percent of them.

6. May 10, 2003Hail$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A strong spring storm system moved through the Mississippi valley during the late afternoon and evening hours producing widespread severe weather. In an unprecedented move, WFO Quad Cities held a press conference the day before to warn of a high probability of significant tornadoes in the afternoon and evening hours of Saturday May 10th, with the area most at risk south of a Keosauqua, Iowa to Princeton, Illinois line. Supercell thunderstorms developed and continued into the evening hours spawning several long track tornadoes and produced copious amounts of large hail. Luckily, most of the tornado tracks were in open country and therefore damage was minimized.

7. Jul 11, 2011Thunderstorm Wind$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Wind gusts estimated to be 80 mph ripped the roof off of the Urbana Elementary School in Urbana, IA around 510 am CDT July 11. Several other businesses were also damaged in the Becca Industrial Park, including Buresh Arch Millwork, Borlaug Systems, and PalTech Enterprises.

8. May 10, 2003Hail$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A strong spring storm system moved through the Mississippi valley during the late afternoon and evening hours producing widespread severe weather. In an unprecedented move, WFO Quad Cities held a press conference the day before to warn of a high probability of significant tornadoes in the afternoon and evening hours of Saturday May 10th, with the area most at risk south of a Keosauqua, Iowa to Princeton, Illinois line. Supercell thunderstorms developed and continued into the evening hours spawning several long track tornadoes and produced copious amounts of large hail. Luckily, most of the tornado tracks were in open country and therefore damage was minimized.

9. Apr 30, 2003Hail$400,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Supercell thunderstorms developed in the afternoon and evening north of a warm front that ran from Southern Iowa into Central Illinois. Three distinct supercells produced a majority of the wind, hail, and heavy rain reports from Jefferson County Iowa into Henry County Illinois. Mercer County Illinois was under tornado warnings on a continuous basis for 2 hours. Officials at a high school track meet in Aledo, Illinois ushered all students into the safety of the school resulting in no injuries. The training of the supercells from Louisa County Iowa to Henry County Illinois dumped heavy rain over the Edwards River and Pope Creek basins in Illinois with radar estimating 9 inches of…

10. Aug 27, 2009Flash Flood$250,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Heavy rains of 3 to 8 inches resulted in some flash flooding across parts of Benton County on August 27. Some areas particularly hard hit were Keystone, Van Horne, Garrison, and Shellsburg. Prairie Creek experienced unprecedented flooding. It flooded an entire pasture and filled some ditches along Highway 30. Mud Creek also flooded out of its banks. Much of the area experienced standing water and some residences reported flooded basements. Several roads around Shellsburg were closed due to the flood waters flowing over roadways.

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

105°F2 times, most recently Jul 14, 1977

All-time low

−35°FJan 31, 2019

Warmest night

79°FJul 15, 2003

Coldest day

−14°FJan 31, 2019

Wettest day

7.23 inAug 8, 1977

Snowiest day

18.0 inMar 11, 1951

Hottest year

2012mean 53.4°F

Coldest year

2019mean 44.9°F

Wettest year

199354.69 in

Driest year

198817.70 in

Snowiest season

66.2 in2007-08

Station Vinton (USC00138568), 796 ft elevation, 5.7 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1904 to October 27, 2026; 97.0% 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 USC00138568.
• 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.