Guthrie County

Every recorded tornado

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

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, Guthrie$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. May 11, 2014Tornado$1.3 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   An NWS storm survey determined that an EF-2 tornado touched south southwest of Guthrie Center and tracked northeast across Lake Panorama and dissipating shortly thereafter.

3. Jun 14, 1998Flood, Guthrie$1.0 million
   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…

4. Dec 23, 2009Ice Storm, Guthrie$1.0 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…

5. Oct 26, 1997Heavy Snow, Guthrie$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…

6. Jun 30, 2014Hail$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Massive hail and wind storm crossed across southern portions of Guthrie county. Hail as large as baseballs and winds of up to 70 mph produced widespread damage to houses, buildings and crops.

7. May 24, 2007Flood$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The cold front mentioned in the event above became stationary for several hours during the early morning of the 24th as low pressure moved from the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles on the night of the 23rd, northeast into Iowa by the morning of the 24th. A large area of thunderstorms developed to the north and northwest of the low pressure track. These storms produced significant rainfall, with two to four inch rainfall common from southwest, into central, and north central Iowa. Guthrie Center, in Guthrie County, received 6.50 inches of rain by sunrise on the 24, with additional rainfall after that. Flash flooding became a problem with significant flooding taking place in Cass,…

8. May 24, 2007Flash Flood$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The cold front mentioned in the event above became stationary for several hours during the early morning of the 24th as low pressure moved from the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles on the night of the 23rd, northeast into Iowa by the morning of the 24th. A large area of thunderstorms developed to the north and northwest of the low pressure track. These storms produced significant rainfall, with two to four inch rainfall common from southwest, into central, and north central Iowa. Guthrie Center, in Guthrie County, received 6.50 inches of rain by sunrise on the 24, with additional rainfall after that. Flash flooding became a problem with significant flooding taking place in Cass,…

9. May 11, 2014Tornado$400,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   EF-1 tornado started near Sunset Beach on Lake Panorama before heading northeast to just south of Yale.

10. Dec 15, 2021Tornado$350,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    This tornado developed in west central Guthrie county to the west southwest of Wichita. The tornado moved northeast producing EF0 and EF1 damage to trees and outbuildings in rural portions of northwest Guthrie County. The storm passed along the southeast edge of Bayard taking a roof off a house and demolishing a garage on another house. This damage was rated EF2. The tornado exited the county shortly thereafter into Greene County.

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°F3 times, most recently Jul 25, 1936

All-time low

−35°F2 times, most recently Feb 2, 1996

Warmest night

82°F3 times, most recently Jul 26, 1936

Coldest day

−15°FDec 23, 1989

Wettest day

6.79 inApr 27, 2009

Snowiest day

14.0 inDec 9, 2009

Hottest year

1931mean 55.1°F

Coldest year

1917mean 45.0°F

Wettest year

200752.82 in

Driest year

195520.81 in

Snowiest season

62.4 in1961-62

Station Guthrie Center (USC00133509), 1,065 ft elevation, 3.6 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1895 to October 27, 2026; 96.7% 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 USC00133509.
• 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.