Tornado Warning Issued for Cherokee, Plymouth and Woodbury Counties in Iowa
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on May 27, 2026, 2 months ago. Warnings of this kind stay in effect for hours to a few days, so this page is a historical record of what was issued, not a current warning. For conditions where you are right now, check weather.gov (US), weather.gc.ca (Canada), the Met Office (UK), or the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia).
Areazine synthesizes this NWS weather alert directly from NOAA's official public data feed. See our methodology for full source attribution and refresh cadence.
NWS Sioux Falls has issued a Tornado Warning for southwestern Cherokee County, northeastern Woodbury County and southeastern Plymouth County in Iowa until 8:30 PM CDT.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Tornado Warning
- Affected area
- Northwestern Iowa
- Issued
- May 27, 2026
- Issuing authority
- NWS Sioux Falls SD
Tornado warnings are short-window notices for the named area. The issuing office is the authority on whether the warning remains active or has been replaced.
Record status: historical. It was issued 2 months ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in Northwestern Iowa.
Alert Details
A Tornado Warning (event code TOW) has been issued by the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls SD. The alert is effective from May 17, 2026 at 7:47 PM CDT until May 17, 2026 at 8:30 PM CDT. Severity is Extreme with Immediate urgency and Observed certainty.
Affected Areas
The warning covers Southwestern Cherokee County in northwestern Iowa, Northeastern Woodbury County in west central Iowa, and Southeastern Plymouth County in northwestern Iowa. The storm was located over Lawton or 12 miles east of Sioux City, moving northeast at 40 mph. Locations in the path include Moville and Kingsley around 7:55 PM CDT, Pierson around 8:00 PM CDT, and Washta.
What You Should Do
TAKE COVER NOW! Move to a basement or an interior room on the lowest floor of a sturdy building. Avoid windows. If you are outdoors, in a mobile home, or in a vehicle, move to the closest substantial shelter and protect yourself from flying debris.
Expected Conditions
Severe thunderstorms capable of producing tornadoes and quarter size hail (1.00 inch). Radar indicated rotation. Flying debris will be dangerous. Mobile homes will be damaged or destroyed. Damage to roofs, windows, and vehicles will occur. Tree damage is likely.
Timeline
The warning is in effect from 7:47 PM CDT until 8:30 PM CDT on May 17, 2026.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Alerts
All Weather Alerts →Nationwide notices with similar length or severity timing 8
Two Areazine-derived peer sets for this NWS weather alert: nearest notices by body length and by same severity near the same agency date. Peers come from other categories so they are not the same-feed Related list above.
Similar body length
Nearest notices by article body length (1,325 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to May 27, 2026.
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