Columbus

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond this area.
2. Weak tornadoes were under-recorded before Doppler radar coverage became national in the early 1990s, so earlier decades read low. Ratings use the Fujita scale before February 2007 and the Enhanced Fujita scale after.

Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, 1950 to 2025.

Every storm within 100 miles

1. Tropical storms and hurricanes (34 kt or more, still tropical) at closest approach. Post-tropical remnants with gale-force winds are listed but not counted. Direct: track within 50 miles; near: within 100 miles. Distance is measured to the county boundary for counties and to the city centre for cities, using positions interpolated hourly between HURDAT2 fixes.

National Hurricane Center HURDAT2, 1851 to 2025.

Every large fire

1. 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

1. 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.

Flood insurance figures are for Bartholomew County, the county that contains Columbus.

Claims by ZIP code

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 Bartholomew County, the county that contains Columbus.

River gauges

1. 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.

The drought index is for Bartholomew County, the county that contains Columbus.

1. The Palmer Drought Severity Index is computed by NOAA each month from the county's average temperature and precipitation, relative to the county's own climate. Zero is normal; -3 or lower is severe drought and -4 or lower extreme drought. It describes the long-term balance of moisture, not water supply or crop losses.

NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, 1895 to September 2026, issued October 6, 2026.

1. 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.
2. 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.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Jun 5, 2008Flood$150 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Flooding occurred along the East Fork White River in Bartholomew County, including in Columbus, due to heavy rain.

2. Jun 7, 2008Flash Flood$100 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   State Road 46 and State Road 11 are closed due to flash flooding from heavy rainfall. The hospital in Columbus was evacuated and water entered the building due to the flooding of Haw Creek. Houses were flooded with residents stranded. Several bridges collapsed and were washed away.

3. Mar 19, 2025Tornado$1.6 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The tornado produced nearly continuous, yet mainly EF1-intensity damage across its relatively long track from about one mile west-southwest of the Rosstown community to about one mile south-southeast of Newbern. Beginning just east of Interstate 65, damage occurred on the northwest side of both the Rosstown and Waynesville communities, and then about 2-3 miles west and north of the Elizabethtown area, which included two areas of more intense damage consistent with low end EF2 winds: walls and roofs collapsed on well built metal farm buildings, with debris lofted and thrown a quarter to one half mile to the north and northeast at both locations. Elsewhere, most county roads within…

4. Jan 23, 1999Flood, Bartholomew$1.3 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A combination of snowmelt and a heavy rain storm late on the 21st and 22nd caused widespread flood along the East Fork of the White River. Travel was very difficult in Jackson county as bridge construction had closed U.S. Hiughway 50, the only east-west road in the county that the East Fork does not flood. The East Fork flooded all local roads used as a detour for Highway 50. Columbus crested at 12.64 feet (flood stage is 9 feet), Seymour at 17.47 feet (flood stage is 12 feet), Bedford at 28.15 feet (flood stage is 20 feet), Williams at 10.9 feet (flood stage is 8 feet) and Shoals at 21.16 feet (flood stage is 20 feet).

5. Apr 4, 2025Flash Flood$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Numerous roads closed across the county due to flash flooding. 2 dams went into elevated risk for failure. Total rainfall was between 1.7 and 2.5 inches.

6. Jul 22, 2008Lightning$350,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning was blamed as the cause of a fire that destroyed an Elizabethtown house. The fire was discovered by a passer-by at about 4:39 AM EST, according to the fire department. The department estimated the fire caused at least $350,000 in damage to the house and contents. The fire was believed to have been burning for some time before it was discovered as evidenced by the entire front of the house, and halfway inside, being engulfed in flames. The owners were at work at the time of occurrence.

7. Jun 29, 2023Thunderstorm Wind$350,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A trained spotter measured a 60 mph thunderstorm wind gust at this location. Numerous trees and power lines also downed with over 9000 power outages caused by the storm.

8. Apr 20, 1996Tornado$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A supercell produced a brief tornado along with downburst winds as it tracked east-northeast. The tornado destroyed several farm buildings and a high power transmission tower.

9. Jan 4, 2005Flood, Bartholomew$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   All of the snow cover from the historic pre-Christmas 2004 snow storm melted by New Year's Day 2005 as the dew point temperatures rose into the 50s. Lowland flooding occurred along the East Fork White River in Jackson County. The White River in southern Indiana rose to bankfull levels. This was the result of the melting snow cover.With warm air over Indiana, a storm system brought 2 to 4 inches of rain to much of central and southern Indiana from the 1st through the 3rd. Because of the saturated soil conditions, widespread local flooding occurred in central and southern Indiana. The major rivers in the state were flooding by the 4th. Another storm system quickly followed from the…

10. Jul 19, 2020Lightning$150,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Twelve apartments were damaged due to a fire that was caused by a lightning strike. Heavy fire damage caused portions of the roof to collapse onto the ceiling above the second floor apartment units. A number of off-duty firefighters were called in to assist to put out the fire.

1. 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.

All-time high

111°F2 times, most recently Jul 24, 1934

All-time low

−27°F2 times, most recently Jan 13, 1912

Warmest night

85°FJun 28, 1894

Coldest day

−6°F2 times, most recently Jan 19, 1994

Wettest day

7.00 inMar 25, 1913

Snowiest day

16.0 inDec 23, 2004

Hottest year

1921mean 58.1°F

Coldest year

1917mean 50.1°F

Wettest year

201959.98 in

Driest year

193426.88 in

Snowiest season

43.0 in1995-96

Station Columbus (USC00121747), 609 ft elevation, 2.8 miles from the city centre. Daily records from 1893 to October 27, 2026; 95.7% 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.

Declarations for Bartholomew County.

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.

• 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 USC00121747.
• 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.
• 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.