Jefferson County

Every recorded tornado

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

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.

Every earthquake of magnitude 4 or more within 50 miles

1. Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more in the USGS Comprehensive Catalog since 1900. Within 50 miles means the epicentre lies within 50 miles of the county boundary (or inside the county).
2. Small earthquakes were under-recorded before the modern seismic networks of the 1970s and are still missed in remote areas, so early decades read low. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them and mix scales (moment, local and body-wave).

USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, 1900 to present, retrieved October 30, 2026.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. 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.

2. Aug 13, 2010Flood$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rains during the second week of August resulted in the Skunk River at Augusta going above the moderate flood stage level of 17 feet on August 13 around 2 pm CDT. It crested above the major flood stage level around 23.3 feet around 1 pm CDT August 16. It fell below the moderate flood stage level around 920 am CDT August 24.

3. May 10, 2003Tornado$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Moved east northeast from 2.1 south southwest of Lockridge to 2.1 miles southeast of Lockridge and ended just short of the county line. Path length 2.4 miles and rated F0.

4. Jun 18, 2010Lightning$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A church steeple in Lockridge was struck by lightning, setting the building on fire. Little was rescued from the building. The time is estimated.

5. Aug 3, 2010Thunderstorm Wind$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Wind gusts estimated to be 70 mph blew a tree down onto a house on W Washington Avenue in Fairfield, IA around 340 am CDT August 3.

6. Aug 13, 2010Flash Flood$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rains resulted in some flash flooding of parts of Fairfield, IA during the late evening of August 13 and early morning of August 14. The flood water was 1 foot deep across 22nd Street and on W Grimes Avenue.

7. Apr 6, 1997High Wind, Jefferson$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Strong gradient winds howled across the area during the morning and early afternoon hours. Widespread and significant damage was done to trees and power lines. Isolated roof and other structural damage also occurred along with several reports of semi-trucks being blow off roads. One Quad City roofer was quoted as saying: "I've been a roofer for 27 years and I've never experienced anything like this." Reports indicated damage was done mostly to new roofs whose shingles had not completely sealed.Gusts at specific airport locations: Burlington, Iowa 47 knots, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 50 knots, Clinton, Iowa 57 knots, Dubuque, Iowa 48 knots, Davenport, Iowa 59 knots, Iowa City, Iowa 46 knots.

8. May 10, 2003Tornado$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Moved NE from 6.4 miles west southwest of Glasgow to 2.5 miles west northwest of Glasgow. Path length of 5 miles and rated F0.

9. Jul 9, 2003Thunderstorm Wind$60,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This was the 9th and final severe weather episode that concluded an active 6 day period across Eastern Iowa, Northern Illinois, and Northeast Missouri. Thunderstorms developed along old outflow boundaries and ahead of a cold front and formed another severe MCS that moved across the area in the late afternoon and evening hours, producing mainly wind damage. Training of storms produced very heavy rains and some areas experienced flash flooding due to soils that were near saturation from rain over the previous 6 days.

10. Feb 24, 2007Ice Storm, Jefferson$53,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    The emergency manager at Fairfield reported county wide power outages. Whole trees 3 feet in diameter down, and many 4 to 6 inch branches down.

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

114°FJul 15, 1936

All-time low

−31°FFeb 3, 1996

Warmest night

89°FAug 5, 1918

Coldest day

−11°F2 times, most recently Feb 3, 1996

Wettest day

5.81 inSep 21, 2017

Snowiest day

14.0 in3 times, most recently Jan 13, 2024

Hottest year

2012mean 55.3°F

Coldest year

1917mean 47.4°F

Wettest year

201053.17 in

Driest year

195618.84 in

Snowiest season

60.5 in1959-60

Station Fairfield (USC00132789), 748 ft elevation, 0.7 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1893 to October 27, 2026; 97.7% 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 USC00132789.
• 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.