Dubuque County, Iowa: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Dubuque County, Iowa has a Relatively Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 63.6 out of 100, higher than about 63% of US counties, with hail, landslides and tornadoes scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $42 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 19 federal disaster declarations that included Dubuque County since 1965, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4796-IA (Severe Storms, Flooding, Straight-Line Winds, and Tornadoes, declared 24 June 2024). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 34 tornadoes touching Dubuque County from 1950 to 2025.
Live weather alerts for Iowa All official warnings Latest FEMA declarations
Population 99,148 Buildings worth $23 billion Area 623 sq mi Risk rank in Iowa 12 of 99 FIPS 19061
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | 89.3 | $2.9 million | about 4 a year | 152 |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | 86.6 | $66,747 | about once every 2.0 years | — |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | 84.0 | $8.8 million | about once every 2.0 years | 28 |
| Cold wave | Relatively Moderate | 77.8 | $5.6 million | about 7.8 a year | 148 |
| Strong wind | Relatively Moderate | 77.6 | $2.1 million | about 5.5 a year | 211 |
| Winter weather | Relatively Moderate | 72.1 | $253,530 | about 17 a year | 319 |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 68.4 | $849,679 | about 5.1 a year | 161 |
| Inland flooding | Relatively Low | 65.4 | $19 million | about 1.6 a year | 46 |
| Heat wave | Relatively Low | 61.0 | $1.1 million | about 4.6 a year | 68 |
| Ice storm | Relatively Low | 48.6 | $142,038 | about once every 3.9 years | 18 |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | 34.9 | $236,241 | about 4 a year | 115,027 strikes |
| Earthquake | Very Low | 31.1 | $152,936 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | — |
| Wildfire | Very Low | 22.8 | $16,592 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | — |
| Hurricane | Very Low | 11.1 | $4,104 | about once every 170 years | 2 |
| Avalanche | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Coastal flooding | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Tsunami | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Volcanic activity | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
Score: FEMA's percentile among US counties that face the hazard (higher = more risk). Expected loss: FEMA's modelled average yearly loss to buildings, people (as a statistical value) and crops. How often: FEMA's annualised frequency of the hazard in the county; for some hazards it counts event-days, so it is a rough guide, not a forecast. "Not Applicable" means FEMA does not model that hazard here.
Federal disaster declarations 19
Most common: Flood 10, Severe Storm 8, Hurricane 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1960s | 3 | Flood ×3 |
| 1970s | 4 | Flood ×4 |
| 1990s | 2 | Severe Storm, Flood |
| 2000s | 5 | Severe Storm ×3, Hurricane, Flood |
| 2010s | 3 | Severe Storm ×3 |
| 2020s | 2 | Severe Storm, Flood |
The last 10
Widest declarations that included Dubuque County
- Hurricane Katrina Evacuation (2005, EM-3239-IA): 99 Iowa counties designated.
- Severe Storms & Flooding (1993, DR-996-IA): 99 Iowa counties designated.
- Severe Storms, Tornadoes, and Flooding (2008, DR-1763-IA): 85 Iowa counties designated.
Named storms in its declarations: Hurricane Katrina (2005).
Not counted above: 2 COVID-19 ("Biological") declarations — in 2020 every US county was included. Iowa also had 7 statewide declarations with no county list.
Tornado record since 1950 34
| Tornadoes touching the county | 34 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F4 ×1 |
| Peak month | June (7) |
| Deadliest | 28 Sep 1972, F2, 64.5 mi path, 0 killed, 3 injured |
| Longest path | 28 Sep 1972, F2, 64.5 mi path, 0 killed, 3 injured |
| Most recent | 11 Jul 2025, EF0, 3.4 mi path |
| Deaths / injuries on those paths | 0 / 4 |
| Rating | (E)F0 | (E)F1 | (E)F2 | (E)F3 | (E)F4 | (E)F5 | Unrated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 10 | 12 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 3 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
Deaths and injuries are for each tornado's whole path, which can run beyond this county. F-scale ratings before February 2007, Enhanced Fujita (EF) after.
How Dubuque County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dubuque County (this page) | — | Relatively Low | 63.6 | Hail |
| Delaware County | 40 km | Relatively Low | 49.7 | Hail |
| Jackson County | 42 km | Very Low | 36.1 | Landslide |
| Jones County | 44 km | Very Low | 32.7 | Drought |
| Grant County, WI | 47 km | Relatively Low | 61.1 | Landslide |
| Jo Daviess County, IL | 56 km | Relatively Low | 51.3 | Landslide |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Iowa, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Very Low 10.6 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Very High 96.9 |
| Community risk factor | 0.59 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $42 million |
FEMA scales expected losses up where social vulnerability is high (people who may find it harder to prepare, evacuate or recover) and down where community resilience is high. A factor above 1 raises the risk score. For social vulnerability a high rating is worse; for resilience a high rating is better.
Prepare for Dubuque County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Iowa · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Hail: Weather alerts for Iowa
- Landslide: Landslides recorded
- Tornado: Is there a tornado warning now?
- Your property's flood zone: FEMA Flood Map Service Center ↗ — this page cannot tell you that.
- Official preparedness guidance: Ready.gov ↗ and your county emergency management office.
What this page shows, and what it misses
FEMA's National Risk Index rates a whole county against every other US county; it is a planning-level estimate for nationwide comparison, not a flood-zone map and not a substitute for a local risk assessment or the risk to one home. Declarations are presidential disaster, emergency and fire management declarations that named this county; state declarations and SBA or USDA designations are not included. Tornadoes are counted when the county is one of up to four listed on the track; 670 tornadoes that crossed a state line carry no county list in NOAA's file and are left out.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Risk Index Dataset: National Risk Index Counties - v1.20.0 (December 2025). Retrieved from https://services.arcgis.com/XG15cJAlne2vxtgt/ArcGIS/rest/services/National_Risk_Index_Counties/FeatureServer/0/query on November 2, 2026, 1:20 PM EST. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Risk Index dataset API or downloadable datasets 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).
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), OpenFEMA Dataset: Disaster Declarations Summaries - v2, retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/api/open/v2/DisasterDeclarationsSummaries on November 2, 2026, 1:21 PM EST. 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).
Tornado records: NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center, Severe Weather Database, tornadoes 1950–2025 (https://www.spc.noaa.gov/wcm/data/1950-2025_actual_tornadoes.csv, downloaded 2 November 2026). Public domain; not endorsed by NOAA. Compiled by Global Incident Tracker.
Questions about Dubuque County
What natural disasters is Dubuque County, Iowa most at risk from?
Dubuque County, Iowa has a Relatively Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 63.6 out of 100, higher than about 63% of US counties, with hail, landslides and tornadoes scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $42 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Dubuque County had?
OpenFEMA lists 19 federal disaster declarations that included Dubuque County since 1965, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4796-IA (Severe Storms, Flooding, Straight-Line Winds, and Tornadoes, declared 24 June 2024). Another 7 Iowa declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Dubuque County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 34 tornadoes touching Dubuque County from 1950 to 2025. The deadliest: 28 Sep 1972, F2, 64.5 mi path, 0 killed, 3 injured (deaths and injuries are for the whole path).
Is the National Risk Index a flood zone map?
No. The National Risk Index is a planning-level estimate for a whole county, built for nationwide comparison. It does not tell you the flood zone or the risk of a single property: for that, look up the address on FEMA's Flood Map Service Center (msc.fema.gov) and ask your local floodplain manager.