Montgomery County

Every recorded tornado

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

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.

Costliest events since 1996

1. May 7, 2007Flash Flood$1.1 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rain for the second consecutive night caused flash flooding along Red Oak Creek in Red Oak as the creek backed up because of high flows on the East Nishnabotna River. Authorities attempted to evacuate nearly 1,600 people, beginning around 300 am local time, although not every attempt was successful. The water caused extensive damage to many basements in town, but no serious injuries were reported. In total an estimated 50 homes were damaged by flooding.

2. Oct 25, 1997Heavy Snow, Montgomery$700,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A major early season snowstorm struck portions of southwestern Iowa, blanketing the area with 6 to 9 inches of heavy wet snow. The snow fell on trees, many of which were still fully or partially leafed, and caused extensive damage and/or total destruction. Thousands of residents were without power just after the storm and many of the outages lasted for several days. Emergency shelters were opened in the affected areas for use by those who suffered a hardship from the storm.

3. Mar 13, 2019Flood$237,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rain and rapid snow melt caused the East Nishnabotna River and Red Oak Creek to flood. Several roads were closed due to high water across Montgomery County. Multiple roadways near Stennett were overcome by water on the 14th. The west side of Coburg was under water.

4. May 6, 2007Flood$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rainfall over the weekend of May 4th through the 6th, caused the East Nishnabotna River to flood across Montgomery county. The flooding closed Highway 34 near Red Oak for a while on Monday May 7th. The East Nishnabotna River at Red Oak crested around 26.4 feet about 9 am cdt on May 7th. Flood stage is 18 feet. The river at Red Oak first crossed flood stage around 6 am cdt May 6th and didn't drop below flood stage until late morning on the 8th.|Besides the flood waters closing Highway 34 near Red Oak, Highway 48 around Elliott was also closed due to flooding. In addition, farmland and many county roads in the area were flooded from around Elliott through Red Oak and toward…

5. Aug 7, 1999Flash Flood$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rain caused flash flooding of many streets and county roads in Montgomery county. Among the damage reported was a retaining wall collapsing from high water just west of Wales. An unofficial 14.5 inches of rain was measured in 2 separate 5 gallon straight sided buckets by a farmer near Wales.

6. Apr 8, 1999Tornado$45,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado appeared to have been spawned by the same storm that produced the f0 tornado to its south. This storm damaged a pig farm where several metal buildings were destroyed. An RV was overturned and pushed into a small A frame house destroying it.

7. Apr 8, 1999Tornado$10,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado was apparently the decaying part of a cyclic tornado which produced the long-lived and eventually strong tornado which initially touched down 2 miles northeast of Clarinda, trees and small outbuildings sustained the majority of damage from this tornado.

8. Oct 1, 2014Flood$5,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rainfall in late September led to river flooding into early October along the East Nishnabotna River. The river rose to flood stage in the afternoon on the 1st, crested in the evening, and fell below flood stage just after midnight on the 2nd. The flooding was minor and confined to low-lying areas along the river.

9. Oct 2, 2014Flood$5,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rainfall in late September led to river flooding into early October along the East Nishnabotna River. The river rose to flood stage in the early morning of the 2nd, crested later that morning, and fell below flood stage in the mid afternoon. The flooding was minor and confined to low-lying areas along the river.

10. Sep 10, 2014Flood$5,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A slow moving thunderstorm complex lead to heavy rainfall on the 9th causing the East Nishnabotna River to rise above flood stage around the Red Oak area. The river rose above flood stage during the early morning on the 10th, crested during mid afternoon and fell below flood stage during the evening. The flooding was minor and confined to low-lying areas.

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

109°FJul 21, 1974

All-time low

−28°FFeb 3, 1996

Warmest night

81°FAug 4, 1989

Coldest day

−10°FDec 22, 1989

Wettest day

7.60 inAug 25, 1987

Snowiest day

17.0 inFeb 21, 1945

Hottest year

2012mean 54.4°F

Coldest year

1940mean 47.2°F

Wettest year

198756.53 in

Driest year

193420.02 in

Snowiest season

60.9 in1935-36

Station Red Oak (USC00136940), 1,040 ft elevation, 3.8 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1897 to September 30, 2026; 98.3% 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 USC00136940.
• 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.