67
Recorded events
0
Direct deaths
3
Direct injuries
$36.2M
Property damage
Tornado in Scott County, Iowa: 67 recorded events between 1954 and 2025. The strongest on record measured F3. That places the county #184 nationally and #2 statewide for this hazard.
Decade by decade
Tornado in Scott County, Iowa: events per decade
Reporting practice changed over time — early decades are undercounted, not calmer.
The busiest decade for tornado in Scott County is the 1990s, when 17 of the county's 67 recorded events were logged. Comparing decades is useful for spotting active periods, but the earliest years are thin because systematic reporting for this hazard began later.
Within the Scott County archive, tornado makes up 6.6% of all recorded severe weather across 9 hazard types. Nationally the county sits at #184 for this hazard and #2 within Iowa, putting it in the 93.8 percentile of all U.S. counties.
Seasonality
Events by month
May is the peak month for tornado in Scott County with 28 recorded events, while Feb is the quietest. Seasonality here is a property of the archive as much as the climate: reports cluster where population and spotter networks are densest.
Tornado tracks
Paths crossing this county
| Date | Scale | Path length | Max width | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995-05-09 | EF3 | 10.0 mi | 73 yd | Crossed in |
| 1988-05-08 | EF3 | 32.0 mi | 150 yd | Touched down here |
| 1974-05-13 | EF3 | 3.6 mi | 100 yd | Touched down here |
| 1962-05-07 | EF3 | 10.0 mi | 300 yd | Touched down here |
| 2025-07-11 | EF2 | 7.6 mi | 500 yd | Touched down here |
| 2023-03-31 | EF2 | 19.6 mi | 200 yd | Crossed in |
| 2017-03-06 | EF2 | 34.7 mi | 200 yd | Touched down here |
| 2017-03-06 | EF2 | 25.3 mi | 1,000 yd | Crossed in |
| 2001-06-14 | EF2 | 6.5 mi | 200 yd | Crossed in |
| 1995-07-27 | EF2 | 5.5 mi | 60 yd | Touched down here |
Significant events
Deadliest on record
| Date | Location | Scale | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 14, 2001 | BLUE GRASS | F2 | 0 | 3 | $0 |
Most recent
Latest recorded events
| Date | Location | Magnitude | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 11, 2025 | PLEASANT VLY | EF0 | $0 |
| Jul 11, 2025 | BUFFALO | EF2 | $0 |
| Jul 16, 2024 | DAVENPORT | EF1 | $0 |
| May 24, 2024 | PLEASANT VLY | EFU | $0 |
| May 24, 2024 | MAYSVILLE | EF1 | $0 |
| May 24, 2024 | DIXON | EF1 | $0 |
| May 24, 2024 | WALCOTT | EFU | $0 |
| Jun 25, 2023 | MAYSVILLE | EF0 | $0 |
| Mar 31, 2023 | NEW LIBERTY | EF0 | $0 |
| Mar 6, 2022 | BLUE GRASS | EF0 | $0 |
Other hazards here
More from Scott County
- Thunderstorm Wind 492
- Hail 270
- Flood 66
- Flash Flood 64
From the record
What the reports say
Written by National Weather Service staff at the time of the event · public domain
This tornado destroyed 26 farm buildings, 20 of them with major damage. Nine homes were hit, one destroyed, two with major damage and six with minor damage. Seven of the nine homes were farmhouses. Roxanne Paper, with baby boy Logan in arm, was downstairs when the tornado struck. She reported that it sounded like something big was tearing through the house. The Gary Meincke farm was hit very hard. He and his wife watched the tornado touch down south of their farm at around 1630 CDT. Shortly after that they ran with their children to the basement. Debris from the Leroy Feldhahn farm near Stockton was spread over nearby Interstate 80 causing a two mile long traffic jam. Governor Terry Branstad later proclaimed a Disaster Emergency for Scott County.
An EF1 tornado touched down in Andalusia, IL around 445 pm CDT and traveled north-northeast. This weak tornado crossed the Mississippi River from Rock Island County and moved into Scott County, IA through eastern sections of Buffalo, IA, affecting a few houses. The primary impact was to the parks on the eastern edge of town. Wind speeds were estimated to be 95 mph. Some large trees were snapped and uprooted along the path. Some of the fallen trees fell onto houses.
A tornado touched down in northwest LeClaire, Iowa and was on the ground for 5 minutes carving a one half mile path to the Mississippi River. The tornado was on the ground about the length of Walnut Street in northern LeClaire, east to the Mississippi River across Highway 67. Numerous trees and power lines were downed. No injuries or fatalities occurred.
Quick answers
Frequently asked
How many tornado events are on record in Scott County, Iowa?
67 tornado events are recorded in Scott County between 1954 and 2025, causing 0 direct deaths.
What is the strongest tornado recorded in Scott County?
The strongest tornado on record in Scott County measured F3.
Where does the tornado data for Scott County come from?
All events come from the NOAA/NCEI Storm Events Database, the federal public-domain archive of severe weather reports. Dates are UTC, damage is as reported and not inflation-adjusted, and the most recent entries may still be revised.
Cite this page
“Tornado in Scott County, Iowa.” Severe Weather History. severeweatherhistory.com/county/iowa/scott-county/tornado/ · Data: NOAA/NCEI, FEMA, U.S. Census — public domain.