Dallas County

Every recorded tornado

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

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. Aug 1, 2003Drought, Dallas$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. Jun 29, 1998Thunderstorm Wind$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A complex weather situation was set up over the central U.S. as a mesoscale convective system passed to the south of Iowa during the overnight hours and early morning of the 29th. Initially, the surface warm front was located to the south of this system. That was not actually the case aloft however. During the predawn hours the surface front surged north and by sunrise was located across northeast Nebraska across northern Iowa. The airmass was very unstable to the south of the front with dew point temperatures will in the 70s F. The initial development of thunderstorms took place during the early part of the day over northeast Nebraska. The storms became severe quickly as they…

3. Oct 26, 1997Heavy Snow, Dallas$3.6 million
   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…

4. Nov 12, 2005Tornado$2.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Tornado touched down in Dallas County and moved into Boone County.

5. Aug 8, 2010Lightning$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A very unstable airmass was in place over Iowa. Afternoon temperatures warmed into the upper 80s to mid 90s, with dewpoint readings in the upper 70s to low 80s. A weak boundary extended out of eastern Nebraska across northern Iowa. This boundary helped to focus moisture. At the same time, a negatively tilted shortwave lifted northeast out of the Rockies into Nebraska during the afternoon and early evening. The lifted index fell to -10 to -14 C by evening with CAPE rising to 5000-7000 J/kg in the very moist airmass. The freezing level was very high, between 16,000 and 17,000 feet. As a result, there was little in the way of hail. The downdraft CAPE was quite high, 800 to 1400 J/kg.…

6. Jun 18, 1998Flood, Dallas$600,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Following a brief break from the rain on the 16th, rainfall resumed on the 17th and 18th. Heavy rain fell over just about the entire state on both days, with the heaviest amounts of 1 to 3 inches on the first night in the Nishnabotna River basin, the Upper Des Moines and Iowa basins, and the lower parts of the South Skunk basin. These rains fell on already saturated soils and resulted on considerable runoff. On the 18th, the Des Moines metropolitan area was blitzed with a massive flooding event. Local rains in the city ranged form 1 to 4 inches, much of it falling in one to two hours. Much of this water was quickly added to the flows on the already high Raccoon River. The Raccoon…

7. Nov 9, 2011Heavy Snow, Dallas$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   An area of low pressure formed over Oklahoma during the day on the 8th and advanced northeast across Missouri. There was strong support in the upper levels of the atmosphere as a negatively tilted shortwave lifted northeast out of the southwest US. A large deformation zone formed to the northwest of the low pressure. Snow began to fall over southwest Iowa by evening and spread into the central counties by mid to late evening. Snowfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches were common. Concentrated areas of heavier snow occurred in and along the center of the deformation zone, with a band of heavy snow extending from near the Lamoni area of south central Iowa, northeast to Winterset. In…

8. Jun 8, 2008Flood$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Water was over the road at 210th St and J Ave.

9. Apr 25, 2007Flood$500,000
   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…

10. Jun 8, 2008Flood$500,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Water was over the road at 210th St and J Ave.

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

108°FAug 16, 1983

All-time low

−26°FFeb 3, 1996

Warmest night

81°F3 times, most recently Jul 27, 2026

Coldest day

−12°FDec 24, 1983

Wettest day

6.18 inAug 27, 1975

Snowiest day

13.7 inJan 26, 1996

Hottest year

2012mean 56.1°F

Coldest year

1951mean 46.9°F

Wettest year

199355.88 in

Driest year

195617.07 in

Snowiest season

69.0 in2009-10

Station Des Moines International Airport (USW00014933), 939 ft elevation, 14.4 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1945 to October 26, 2026; 100.0% 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 USW00014933.
• 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.