Winneshiek County Emergency Management & 911 Communications Center

06/23/2026

Hot pavement, parked cars, and high humidity can become dangerous quickly. 🐾

As temperatures rise, remember to keep pets cool, hydrated, and safe outdoors.

06/20/2026

🎡 Summer events bring communities together — but they also require planning for weather, traffic, medical response, and emergencies. EMA often works behind the scenes to help events stay safe and prepared.

06/17/2026

Winneshiek County Emergency Alert:

Severe Thunderstorm Watch
Severe Thunderstorm Watch issued June 17 at 1:18PM CDT until June 17 at 8:00PM CDT by NWS La Crosse WI
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH
341 IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM CDT THIS EVENING FOR THE FOLLOWING AREAS

IN IOWA THIS WATCH INCLUDES 6 COUNTIES

IN NORTH CENTRAL IOWA

FLOYD MITCHELL

IN NORTHEAST IOWA

ALLAMAKEE CHICKASAW HOWARD
WINNESHIEK

IN MINNESOTA THIS WATCH INCLUDES 7 COUNTIES

IN SOUTHEAST MINNESOTA

DODGE FILLMORE HOUSTON
MOWER OLMSTED WABASHA
WINONA

IN WISCONSIN THIS WATCH INCLUDES 5 COUNTIES

IN SOUTHWEST WISCONSIN

CRAWFORD VERNON

IN WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN

BUFFALO LA CROSSE TREMPEALEAU

THIS INCLUDES THE CITIES OF ALMA, ARCADIA, AUSTIN, CALEDONIA,
CHARLES CITY, CRESCO, DECORAH, DODGE CENTER, LA CROSSE,
NEW HAMPTON, OSAGE, PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, PRESTON, ROCHESTER,
VIROQUA, WABASHA, WAUKON, WHITEHALL, AND WINONA.
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06/17/2026

June is National Safety Month. 🦺

Emergency management is about reducing risk before emergencies happen — through planning, training, communication, and community partnerships.

06/17/2026

Remain weather aware today!

Severe outlook for today looking fairly similar to how it looked before as uncertainty lingers with how this morning's convection will help/hinder things down the road. Hail still looks to be the primary hazard this afternoon with gusty winds and heavy rain more secondary threats ⛈️

This morning's activity will be more active to the south across Central Iowa - though portions of north central Iowa could potentially just get in on the northern end of the action. If this activity can move out quick enough and the we can recover some of the instability, severe storms will have a better shot at forming later on this afternoon and evening. How much we can recover will be key.

06/16/2026

FYI

There will be several rounds of storms on Wednesday to contend with. The first comes early in the morning, which could bring large hail to parts of north-central Iowa around and shortly after sunrise before they transition to a heavy rain threat. Our attention then turns back towards the I-35 corridor for the early afternoon hours, where a second line of storms could develop and track eastward, bringing with them large hail, damaging winds, and perhaps a tornado threat. Exactly where these storms form and their severity will be driven by how quickly the morning storms can clear. Stay weather aware tomorrow!

06/16/2026

Very interesting map. Thank you Meteorologist Mark Schnackenberg.

An interesting map. This map shows the average number of tornadoes per state based on the data from last 10 years. Iowa has more than Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas.

06/16/2026

FYI

While we had a nice break from severe weather the last few days, it is meteorological summer so it was bound to return... Chances for strong to severe storms come back Wednesday, especially along and south of I-90. This will mainly be a wind and hail event but all hazards are possible.

There's still a lot of uncertainty with this event and overall, the better potential looks to remain well to our south and east but we'll have to keep a close eye on how trends evolve over the next 12-36 hours. Stay tuned!

06/15/2026

Thank you KCRG-TV9 for the interview.

Clarification, flooding and the risks associated with flooding are of the upmost importance to myself and Winneshiek County. While I support the USGS river gauges, I also strongly believe in the Iowa Flood Center. The Iowa Flood Center has been a fantastic partner to Winneshiek County for many years and we have several of their products already deployed in Winneshiek County. Yes, the USGS river gauges are fantastic, however the Iowa Flood Center's bridge sensors offer a more economical alternative which works well for Winneshiek County.

No final decision, either way, has been made yet.

City of Decorah
City of Calmar
City of Spillville
City of Ossian
City of Fort Atkinson, Iowa

One Iowa county is using alternative flood monitoring systems after it was priced out of using federal gauges. Read more: https://www.kcrg.com/2026/06/14/budget-cuts-force-an-iowa-county-abandon-gold-standard-flood-warning-system/