From NWS
1978: Severe thunderstorms produced an F3 tornado that traveled across central Iowa from near Baxter through Grinnell killing 6 people and injuring 45 others. This was the last tornado to kill at least six people in Iowa until the Parkersburg storm of 2008. Many of the injuries and 4 of the fatalities occurred south of Grinnell at the Interstate 80 exit at Highway 146 where several businesses and vehicles were struck. The storms also produced large hail with stones as large as 3 inches in diameter falling around Waterloo and Cedar Falls.

1881: The earliest Iowa snowfall on record affected most of the western half of the state during the morning hours. September of 1881 was a wet month generally across the upper Midwest, and on the 15th a low pressure system moved northward over Chicago then turned west and stalled over Iowa on the 16th drawing unseasonably cool air into the state. As a result rain fell all day on the 15th then began to mix with snow at times across about the northwestern two thirds of Iowa on the morning of September 16th. At Sibley and Sac City the snow did not accumulate but observers indicated that “snow fell all day” and at Algona an estimated 4 inches of snow fell with another observer there noting that tree branches were broken by the weight of the snow, which all melted by noon. Snow was also reported at McGregor in northeastern Iowa and in the south and southwest was observed as “quite heavy” at Creston, while several inches were noted between Des Moines and Atlantic and 4 to 6 inches were estimated between Stuart and Avoca in Pottawattamie County. This is the earliest date of the fall on which any snow has ever been reliably recorded in Iowa.

16 September 1888 → A tornado in Washington, D.C., probably an F2, traveled up Maryland Avenue before it lifted at the foot of Capitol Hill. The Smithsonian and Botanical Gardens were damaged along the two-mile-long path. 16 September 1926 → The Great Miami Hurricane struck that city as a Category 4. The eye of the storm crossed directly over downtown Miami and lasted for 35 minutes, prompting people to return to the streets where subsequently many were killed as the second half of the storm roared in. Very little of Miami and Miami Beach were left intact. 16 September 1928 → On this day, a hurricane made landfall in south Florida, passing over Lake Okeechobee. The official death toll was set at 1,836 people. 16 September 1999 → A massive former Category 4, Hurricane Floyd came ashore in North Carolina. Tropical storm force winds extended nearly 600 miles out from the storm’s center. 35 of the storm’s 57 fatalities occurred in North Carolina. Up to 19 inches of rain soaked southeastern North Carolina just 11 days after Hurricane Dennis brought up to 15 inches of rain to the region. Flooding was rampant, with much of the worst conditions occurring during the overnight hours catching people unaware. 16 September 2004 → Hurricane Ivan made landfall in Alabama as a Category 3, but had been a powerful Category 5 four days earlier over the Gulf of Mexico. It had been Category 4 or stronger for 192 consecutive hours. It was the most southerly category 3 (at 10 degrees north latitude), 4 (11 degrees N), and 5 (14 degrees N) storm ever seen in the Atlantic. After landfall the storm took a bizarre track moving northward into Kentucky, then east off the Delaware coast, then back ashore in southern Florida, westward into the Gulf, and then making yet another landfall in Texas.

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