Wasilla
Population 10,556 (2025)
1 large wildfires have burned within 25 miles of Wasilla since 1984.
Hazard fingerprint Each spoke is this county’s percentile among U.S. counties where that hazard occurs. How it is computed
- Wildfire burn scars within 25 miles since 19841
- Major flood years since 1978, Matanuska-Susitna Borough1
At a glance
Tornado paths within 25 miles, tropical cyclone tracks within 100 miles and wildfire perimeters within 25 miles of the city centre. Storm events, flood insurance claims and disaster declarations are for Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Earthquakes within 50 miles, volcanoes within 100 miles and smoke days are measured from the city centre; river and tide gauges, tsunami and landslide records and the drought index are for Matanuska-Susitna Borough.
Snowiest season
97.4in
Winter of 1989-90
Tornadoes
No tornado is recorded here in the Storm Prediction Center database, which begins in 1950.
Hurricanes and tropical storms
No tropical storm or hurricane has tracked within 100 miles since records began in 1851.
Wildfire and smoke
1 large fire burned within 25 miles since 1984.
Largest
May 29, 2010
Eklutna Fire, 1,938 acres
22.6 miles from the city centre.
Most recent
May 29, 2010
Eklutna Fire
1,938 acres in total.
Every large fire
| Eklutna | 2010 | 22.6 | 1,938 |
- Large fires mapped by the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity program since 1984: 1,000 acres or more in the West, 500 or more in the East. Prescribed burns are excluded. Acres here are the part of each perimeter inside this place.
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service), 1984 to 2026.
Smoke overhead
Smokiest year
2019: 23 days
Heavy smoke on 7 days in 2019, the most of any year.
Last 10 years
5.0 days a year
Medium or heavy smoke, 2016 to 2025.
2025
2 days
Medium or heavy smoke.
- A smoke day is a date on which a smoke plume traced by NOAA Hazard Mapping System analysts from satellite imagery covered this place's point (the county's population centre or the city centre). Counts here are of medium or heavy smoke. Since 2018 analysts have often drawn light smoke as one area over most of the continent, so light-smoke counts are not comparable from year to year. The plumes show smoke anywhere in the air above, not air quality at the ground, and smoke hidden by cloud is missed.
NOAA Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, 2011 to 2026, retrieved October 30, 2026.
Floods and flood insurance
87 federal flood insurance claims since 1979, with $2.2 million paid.
Flood insurance figures are for Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the county that contains Wasilla.
Most claims in one year
2012: 31 claims
$602,000 paid.
2nd most
2006: 16 claims
$149,000 paid.
3rd most
1994: 5 claims
$349,000 paid.
Claims by ZIP code
| 99645 | 25 | $1.0 million |
| 99676 | 21 | $216,000 |
| 99688 | 16 | $436,000 |
| 99654 | 9 | $60,000 |
| 99694 | 5 | $36,000 |
This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).
OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026. NOAA Storm Events through 2026.
River crests
River gauges in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the county that contains Wasilla.
Most severe crest
October 11, 1986
Talkeetna River near Talkeetna, 17.38 ft
4.88 feet above the 12.5 ft flood stage; major flooding by today’s categories.
Most recent moderate or major crest
July 23, 2026
Moose Creek at Oilwell Road near Trapper Creek, 19.05 ft
Moderate flooding.
River gauges
- Crests are the highest and the recent crests the National Weather Service lists for each river gauge in the county that has a flood stage, not every flood. Flood categories use each gauge's current flood stages; crests from before levees, dams or channel changes may not be comparable. Crests measured on an old datum are left out of the rankings.
NOAA National Water Prediction Service gauge records, retrieved October 30, 2026.
Drought
NOAA’s county drought index covers the lower 48 states only.
Earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides
267 earthquakes of magnitude 4 or more within 50 miles since 1900; the largest was magnitude 7.1 in 2018.
1,755
Magnitude 3+ within 50 miles since 1973
267
Magnitude 4+ within 50 miles since 1900
43
Magnitude 5+ within 50 miles since 1900
Largest within 50 miles
November 30, 2018
1 km SE of Point MacKenzie, Alaska; 23.0 miles away, 29.0 miles deep.
Most recent, magnitude 3 or more
October 27, 2026
Magnitude 3.6
18 km E of Susitna North, Alaska; 39.7 miles away.
Every earthquake of magnitude 4 or more within 50 miles
- Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more in the USGS Comprehensive Catalog since 1900. Within 50 miles means the epicentre lies within 50 miles of the city centre.
- Small earthquakes were under-recorded before the modern seismic networks of the 1970s and are still missed in remote areas, so early decades read low. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them and mix scales (moment, local and body-wave).
USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, 1900 to present, retrieved October 30, 2026.
Volcanoes within 100 miles
- U.S. volcanoes within 100 miles, from the USGS Volcano Hazards Program. The threat category is the USGS 2018 National Volcanic Threat Assessment, which ranks volcanoes by how hazardous their past eruptions were and how many people and how much infrastructure lie near them. It is not a forecast of eruption.
USGS Volcano Hazards Program, retrieved October 30, 2026.
Mapped landslides
Landslides mapped in Matanuska-Susitna Borough.
3,353
Landslides mapped, probable or better
3,034
With a recorded date
5
Source inventories
Mapped by AK DOT (2,816), USGS AK 2018 Ground Failure (314), USGS Earthquake-Triggered Ground Failure (217), USGS AK PWS Instabilities (5), NASA (1).
- Landslides mapped in the USGS compilation of landslide inventories across the United States (version 3.0, 2025), rated probable or better. The compilation joins inventories made by federal and state agencies for different purposes and areas, so the number mapped in a county reflects how closely it has been surveyed as much as how often its slopes fail. An area with few records may simply not have been mapped. Deaths are as recorded in the inventories; a slide listed in two inventories is counted once.
USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0, retrieved October 27, 2026.
Severe weather and other events
7 events in the National Weather Service record for Matanuska-Susitna Borough, 7 of them since 1996.
0
Hail reports, 1 inch or larger
0
Hail, 2 inches or larger
0
Damaging gusts, 58 mph+
3
Winter weather events since 1996
0
Heat events since 1996
0
Cold events since 1996
- Storm Events records before 1996 cover only tornadoes, thunderstorm wind and hail. Damage figures are as reported by the National Weather Service at the time, not adjusted for inflation.
NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, 1950 to 2026, issued October 26, 2026.
Weather records
From Matanuska Experiment Farm, 6.9 miles from the city centre, with records from 1917.
- All-time high
- 91°FJun 17, 1936
- All-time low
- −41°F3 times, most recently Feb 5, 1999
- Warmest night
- 64°FJul 12, 1918
- Coldest day
- −24°F2 times, most recently Jan 29, 1989
- Wettest day
- 2.48 inSep 9, 1925
- Snowiest day
- 18.0 inNov 19, 1964
- Hottest year
- 2016mean 43.2°F
- Coldest year
- 1956mean 31.9°F
- Wettest year
- 193025.78 in
- Driest year
- 19699.84 in
- Snowiest season
- 97.4 in1989-90
Median first snow
October 21
Earliest: September 19, 1930
Median last snow
April 11
Latest: May 4, 2001
0 of 88 winters had no measurable snow.
Station Matanuska Experiment Farm (USC00505733), 172 ft elevation, 6.9 miles from the city centre. Daily records from 1917 to September 30, 2026; 98.0% of days in the last 30 years are complete. Records at a single station can differ from a city’s official threaded record, which may combine several stations.
NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily.
Federal disaster declarations
20 since 1953. The most recent: Severe Storm, April 7, 2026.
Declarations for Matanuska-Susitna Borough.
| Apr 7, 2026 | Winter Storm | DR-4904-AK |
| Mar 14, 2022 | Severe Storm | DR-4646-AK |
| Apr 9, 2020 | Biological | DR-4533-AK |
| Mar 13, 2020 | Biological | EM-3446-AK |
| Aug 22, 2019 | Fire | FM-5290-AK |
| Aug 20, 2019 | Fire | FM-5287-AK |
| Jan 31, 2019 | Earthquake | DR-4413-AK |
| Nov 30, 2018 | Earthquake | EM-3410-AK |
| Sep 5, 2018 | Flood | DR-4391-AK |
| Jun 15, 2015 | Fire | FM-5084-AK |
| Nov 27, 2012 | Severe Storm | DR-4094-AK |
| Jun 11, 2009 | Flood | DR-1843-AK |
| Oct 16, 2006 | Severe Storm | DR-1663-AK |
| Apr 26, 2003 | Severe Storm | DR-1461-AK |
| Nov 8, 2002 | Earthquake | DR-1440-AK |
| Jun 26, 2002 | Flood | DR-1423-AK |
| Feb 17, 2000 | Severe Storm | DR-1316-AK |
| Jun 7, 1996 | Fire | DR-1119-AK |
| Oct 13, 1995 | Flood | DR-1072-AK |
| Oct 27, 1986 | Flood | DR-782-AK |
This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).
OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries, retrieved October 30, 2026. Statewide declarations are not listed.
Sources and vintage
Every number on this page comes from these public records.
- Tornadoes NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, through 2025.
- Tropical cyclones NOAA National Hurricane Center HURDAT2 (Atlantic; Northeast and Central Pacific), through 2025.
- Wildfire USGS/USFS Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity, through 2026.
- Storm events NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, through 2026.
- Flood insurance OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026.
- Declarations OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2, retrieved October 30, 2026.
- Weather records NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily, station USC00505733.
- River crests NOAA National Weather Service, National Water Prediction Service river gauges, retrieved October 30, 2026.
- Drought NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, through September 2026.
- Smoke NOAA NESDIS Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, retrieved October 30, 2026.
- Volcanoes USGS Volcano Hazards Program, U.S. volcanoes and 2018 threat assessment.
- Landslides USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0 (2025).
- Earthquakes USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat), retrieved October 30, 2026.
Joins, thresholds and known limits are set out in the methodology. Found an error? Report it. Page built October 30, 2026.