(Radio Iowa) – The National Weather Service’s summary for 2025 shows the number of confirmed tornadoes in Iowa was below average in 2025. N-W-S meteorologist Kristi Carter says there were 32 confirmed twisters. “The average is around 50, and especially lower than say two years ago in 2024 when we had 125,” Carter says. There were no reported injuries are deaths from tornadoes in 2025. There were 18 confirmed tornadoes in July of last year, the most of any month, and 12 of those happened on July 11th. Carter says the spring months are usually the ones that see the most tornadic activity.

“Late April, May, June climatologically is our highest. It’s not uncommon to get tornadoes in, you know, July, August, really any time of year, we’ve had a tornado at some point in time,” she says. “But it just so happened that this year, like this past year, 2025, July was kind of our busier month.” Carter says we had fewer severe weather events through the springtime than in past years. Tornadoes are measured on a scale starting at zero, going up to the most severe which are rated a five. A majority of last year’s tornadoes were at the bottom of the scale.

“We had 22 or the E-F-zero or E-F-U, so they didn’t hit any damage indicators in order for them to be rated. We had seven E-F-1s and three E-F-2s and nothing higher than E-F-2,” Carter says. The longest path for a tornado was 20 miles for one that touched down in Fremont and Page County. The peak hour for tornadoes in 2025 was 3 p-m.