Iowa Annual Rainfall see below for individual cities 


 

Iowa city precipitation totals

City

Avg Annual Precip

Avg Snow Annual

 Avg. days of Precip

Avg # snow days

Avg # thunderstorm days

Avg # hail days
Des Moines 34.72 31.8 108 64 46 2
Dubuque 35.52 42.1 117 62 35 2
Sioux City 25.99 32.0 99 63 43 2
Waterloo 33.15 31.8 103 63 41 1
State Average - 34.05 inches, 31st wettest in U.S. 

Iowa Precipitation Records 

  • Driest location ranked by lowest annual average precipitation: Akron, northwest Iowa, 25.81"
  • Wettest location ranked by highest annual average precipitation: Lamoni, southern Iowa, 39.37"
  • Snowiest location ranked by highest annual average snowfall: Dubuque, eastern Iowa, 43.8"
  • State precipitation maximum for 24 hours - Decatur county, southern Iowa, 8/5-6/1959, 16.70" 
  • State precipitation maximum for 1 year - Muskatine, southeast Iowa, 1851, 74.50"
  • State snow maximum for 24 hours - Sibley, northwest Iowa, 2/18/1962, 21.0"
  • State snow maximum for 1 season - Northwood, northern Iowa, 1908-1909, 90.4"
  • On May 28, 1942, the latest snowstorm of record for the state of Iowa left 10 inches at LeMars, 
8 inches at Cherokee, and 7.5 inches at Waukon. Afternoon highs were in the lower 30s 
in parts of northwestern Iowa.
  • On July 14, 1987, severe thunderstorms in Iowa produced eight inches of golf ball size hail near 
Grafton, Iowa, completely stripping corn stalks in the area.

Precipitation data for other U.S. states
Data source: National Data Climatic Center