Snow Totals in Iowa: The Last Storm and the Season So Far

The list near the top of this page reads the National Weather Service's Local Storm Reports for Iowa from the last 7 days, the biggest first, with the reporter and the time. For your own address, enter a ZIP code in the tool.

It depends on where you are. On the 1991-2020 normals, Mason City gets 44.4 inches, Dubuque gets 42.5 inches, Decorah gets 37.5 inches and Des Moines gets 36.5 inches a season. The median across 140 Iowa weather stations with a normal is 31.1 inches.

Among the reference stations here, Dubuque holds the record: 79.7 inches in 2007-08. Seasons run July 1 to June 30, and only seasons with nearly complete records count.

Des Moines recorded 19.8 inches on January 1, 1942, the biggest single day at the reference stations on this page. The table lists each station’s own.

Of the stations on this page, Mason City, at 1,188 feet, has the highest normal, 44.4 inches a season. Last season, 2025-26, it recorded 26.7 inches.

Enter a ZIP code in the tool. It finds the nearest long record weather station and compares its snowfall since July 1 with the 1991-2020 normal to the same date, and shows last season’s total against a normal season.

Observers measure new snow on a flat board painted white, set out in an open spot away from trees, roofs and drifts, so the snow lands where wind has not rearranged it. The board is read at least every six hours during a storm, because snow settles under its own weight and melts from the bottom. A single reading at the end of a long storm runs low. After each reading the board is swept clean, and the storm total is the sum of the readings. Depth on the ground is a different number: it holds older snow and has settled.