North Slope Borough

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.

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

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.

Every earthquake of magnitude 4 or more within 50 miles

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 county boundary (or inside the county).
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.

Mapped landslides

Mapped by AK DOT (3).

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.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Jan 9, 2005High Wind, Eastern Beaufort Sea Coast$7.7 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   On January 7th, a low pressure center moved north over the Chukotsk Peninsula. as it moved over the Russian Arctic Ocean it deepened rapidly and the cold front associated with the original low strengthened and swept east across the North Slope on the 8th, bringing strong west winds and snow. The surface low, though 450 miles north of Barrow the afternoon of the 8th, continued to deepen and approached 980 mb. It began to drift southeast which allowed the strong winds over the eastern arctic coast to continue until finally relaxing on the early morning of the 12th. A prolonged blizzard occurred at the village of Kaktovik. Due to the wind knocking utility wires together or apart from…

2. Jul 29, 2008High Surf, Western Arctic Coast$7.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A 980 mb low pressure center moved counter-clockwise across the southern Beaufort Sea during 29th through Aug 1st, bringing several periods of west winds 30 to 50 mph across the Arctic Coast of Alaska. This caused a combination of high surf and elevated ocean water levels which destroyed the seawall and threatened 3 structures at the village of Wainwright on the western coast, and damaged the seawall and half of the airstrip at the village of Kaktovik, on the far eastern coast. On Aug 1, a father and his 13-year-old son in an open skiff perished in Camden Bay under strong winds as they were boating from their camp to Kaktovik. Property Damage Estimated at $7 million for Wainwright…

3. Jul 30, 2008Coastal Flood, Eastern Beaufort Sea Coast$800,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A 980 mb low pressure center moved counter-clockwise across the southern Beaufort Sea during 29th through Aug 1st, bringing several periods of west winds 30 to 50 mph across the Arctic Coast of Alaska. This caused a combination of high surf and elevated ocean water levels which destroyed the seawall and threatened 3 structures at the village of Wainwright on the western coast, and damaged the seawall and half of the airstrip at the village of Kaktovik, on the far eastern coast. On Aug 1, a father and his 13-year-old son in an open skiff perished in Camden Bay under strong winds as they were boating from their camp to Kaktovik. Property Damage Estimated at $7 million for Wainwright…

4. Sep 3, 2014High Surf, Eastern Beaufort Sea Coast$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A 998 mb low pressure center moved from the high Arctic south toward Barrow on the 3rd then east toward Banks Island on the 4th. The low brought gusty west to northwest winds along the Arctic coast from the 3rd through the morning of the 5th. ||Zone 202 - West winds gusted to 38 kts (44 mph). At Barrow, significant erosion to Stevenson Street which had to be closed from the end of the former Naval Arctic Research Laboratory to Niksirak. Damage amount is a rough estimate.||Zone 203 - Minor beach erosion was reported during the morning of the 3rd by the Dockmaster at Prudhoe Bay.||Zone 204 - At Kaktovik, winds at the Barter Island AWOS gusted as high as 46 kts (53 mph). The Barter…

5. Sep 3, 2014High Surf, Northern Arctic Coast$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A 998 mb low pressure center moved from the high Arctic south toward Barrow on the 3rd then east toward Banks Island on the 4th. The low brought gusty west to northwest winds along the Arctic coast from the 3rd through the morning of the 5th. ||Zone 202 - West winds gusted to 38 kts (44 mph). At Barrow, significant erosion to Stevenson Street which had to be closed from the end of the former Naval Arctic Research Laboratory to Niksirak. Damage amount is a rough estimate.||Zone 203 - Minor beach erosion was reported during the morning of the 3rd by the Dockmaster at Prudhoe Bay.||Zone 204 - At Kaktovik, winds at the Barter Island AWOS gusted as high as 46 kts (53 mph). The Barter…

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.

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.

Neighbouring counties

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.