Lawrence County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Lawrence County: 34.
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.

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

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.

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.

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.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Apr 27, 2011Tornado$40.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The violent tornado continued to track northeast from Franklin County into Lawrence County as an EF-5 near the Mt. Hope area where significant devastation was incurred to single family homes and a restaurant. Nothing but the foundation and a pile of debris remained in this area, and a small portion of the restaurant foundation buckled. Thousands of hardwood and softwood trees were snapped, with a significant number of trees twisted and debarked with only stubs of branches remaining. Many mobile homes were also destroyed with the frames mangled, and a single family home was completely destroyed with the walls and contents strewn over a hundred yards. Further northeast the damage…

2. Jul 5, 2012Thunderstorm Wind$2.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A severe thunderstorm produced a swath of wind damage across Moulton in the form of a macroburst or a large scale microburst. The overall damage area stretched approximately four miles from west to east and 3.3 miles from north to south, covering the city. The majority of the wind damage was identified as snapped softwood and hardwood trees along with damage to power lines. Many trees were noted to be down on homes and businesses across Moulton. Several businesses had windows partially broken out. Pockets of more intense damage was specifically found in an area along highway 157, just north of highway 24. Specifically, the Lawrence county exchange building received significant…

3. Dec 23, 1998Ice Storm, Lawrence$1.2 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A winter storm brought a mixture of freezing rain...sleet...and rain to the northern half of Alabama. The northwestern quarter of Alabama was especially hard hit. The precipitation began in a narrow band across Fayette, Walker, Cullman, and Marshall counties around 2 am and then around 5am in the rest of the counties and lasted until early afternoon on the 24th. The northwestern quarter of the state saw temperatures at or below freezing for the majority of the event. Liquid equivalent precipitation ranged from one to three inches. Significant ice accumulations of one half to one inch were common across the area. Numerous trees were down across every county. Significant power…

4. Nov 24, 2001Tornado$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The same supercell thunderstorm that produced the tornado in Haleyville produced another tornado near the Lawrence-Morgan county line. The tornado began at 12:10 pm 1 mile southwest of Caddo near CR 214. The tornado moved northeast through Caddo and into Morgan County. The tornado ended at 12:15 pm near North Mountain Road in Trinity. Emergency Management officials estimated that around 25 homes sustained varying degrees of damage including 3 homes that were totally destroyed, one mobile home demolished, and 2 homes received significant damage. Additional damage was reported to several businesses and one church. Numerous trees were snapped or uprooted and numerous outbuildings…

5. May 8, 2008Tornado$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A tornado continued its track from Fosters Mill in Colbert County into the far northern tip of Lawrence County. The tornado struck the Doublehead Resort and Lodge producing significant structural damage. A 2-story house was completely lifted off its foundation and moved nearly 20 feet. The entire west-facing side of this house was ripped off along with significant roof damage.

6. May 6, 2009Tornado$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The tornado touched down in the backyard of a mobile home along CR 327. At this location, a large oak tree fell onto the mobile home splitting it in two where a woman and her young daughter were taking shelter. Numerous trees were uprooted and snapped surrounding the home. The tornado path continued northeast along CR 328 producing significant damage to another mobile home. More than half of the structure was moved off its well secured foundation and the majority of the roof was blown off. A few outbuildings were completely destroyed and vehicles were moved from their original locations in the driveway. Numerous large trees were snapped and uprooted at this location. Peak wind…

7. Mar 12, 2010Lightning$120,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning started a fire in the attic of one of the buidings at the Courtland Village Apartments. This fire quickly spread to all the units while firefighters from the area battled the fire for 2 hours. Tragically, the building was a total loss and eight families were displaced by the fire after the blaze was extinguished.

8. Apr 12, 2009Strong Wind, Lawrence$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Strong winds between 40 and 50 mph downed trees and powerlines countywide. The worst winds damage occurred in the southern portion of the county. Particularly hard hit were the Tanner area at Jones Crossroads, Sod Road, and Nancy Lou Loop.

9. Jul 20, 2000Thunderstorm Wind$75,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Numerous trees and power lines were knocked down throughout the county. Several trees were blown onto homes causing major damage. Dime size hail was reported in a few locations. In Langtown just north of Moulton at 1538 CST, a woman was blown off the front porch of her home. She was subsequently hospitalized with a broken arm.

10. Feb 1, 1996Winter Storm, Lawrence$65,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A winter storm brought a mixture of freezing and frozen precipitation to approximately the northern half of Alabama. A period of freezing rain followed by light snow brought traffic to a complete standstill across North Alabama. Ice accumulations were large enough in many locations to down trees or break off tree limbs. Power outages were common but widespread with pockets of outages. Power outages were probably not as severe as they might have been. The wintery precipitation began late Thursday, the first, but had ended across the state by Saturday morning.A number of chicken houses in the northern part of the state collapsed under the weight of ice and snow. Ice and snow…

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

106°FJul 16, 1980

All-time low

−13°FJan 21, 1985

Warmest night

80°FJul 29, 2026

Coldest day

13°FDec 24, 2022

Wettest day

9.23 inDec 26, 2015

Snowiest day

16.0 inFeb 13, 1960

Hottest year

1990mean 63.7°F

Coldest year

2014mean 58.2°F

Wettest year

202083.03 in

Driest year

198142.38 in

Snowiest season

24.5 in1959-60

Station Moulton 2 (USC00015635), 622 ft elevation, 4.0 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1957 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.

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, station USC00015635.
• 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.