Historic Tornado Outbreak...1967

Going to go back in time with this weather history lesson...courtesy of the Des Moines National Weather Service...

1967: An unprecedented January tornado outbreak struck eastern and southeastern Iowa and portions of Missouri, Illinois, and Wisconsin. There were at least 13 tornadoes in Iowa with many of these producing significant F2 or F3 damage. Two tornadoes struck Lee County resulting in 10 injuries, and one of those tornadoes produced F3 damage and killed a young child just west of Fort Madison. Another tornado produced F4 damage just across the border in northeastern Missouri before entering Davis County. A cold front moved through the state later that night and on the 26th snow fell across about the southern half of Iowa with snowfall amounts ranging up to 13.5 inches at Burlington, less than two days after tornadoes had touched down in the same area. To put the extremely unusual nature of this outbreak into perspective, this is the only date in January on which a tornado has ever been recorded in Iowa and only one has ever been recorded in February.