Montgomery County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Montgomery County: 9.
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.

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.

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. Sep 16, 2004High Wind, Montgomery$9.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Hundreds of trees and power lines were snapped off or blown down during Ivan. At least 3300 homes sustained varying degrees of wind damage. Power was not fully restored for at least a week. Maximum wind gusts were estimated around 75 miles an hour. Three women in Montgomery were killed due to carbon monoxide poisoning after Ivan. The women had a generator running in their home because the power was out of service.

2. May 7, 2009Flash Flood$1.8 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The city of Montgomery experienced extensive flash flooding due to a period of very heavy rainfall. An estimated 10+ inches of rain fell in portions of Montgomery County in about a six hour time frame. The downtown area, including the capitol district, was hit especially hard. At least three feet of water flowed into the basement of the Statehouse building, and state legislators temporarily moved to backup chambers in the old Capitol. Numerous streets downtown were closed, and numerous cars became stranded in the high water. One 67 year old man drowned when his car was swept away by flood waters in Montgomery.

3. Mar 6, 1996Tornado$1.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The fourth in a series of four tornadoes across southern and eastern Montgomery cut a swath of destruction about 4 miles in length in an area just outside the city limits of Montgomery. The tornado began in an open field just south of a small housing development called Ranchette Estates. The tornado travelled on a path toward the northeast moving across the Country Estates Mobile Home Park where two men were killed and a number of others were injured. The tornado continued toward the northeast damaging the Georgia Washington Junior High School. It ended shortly after damaging a number of houses in the Bridlebrook Farms sub-division. About 40 homes were damaged in the Bridlebrook…

4. Mar 6, 1996Tornado$1.3 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   This was the first in a series of tornadoes that caused extensive damage across the southern portion of the city of Montgomery. This short tornado downed trees and power lines and damaged a number of rooftops in the Cloverdale and Normandale sections of Montgomery. The WCOV television tower was toppled by strong wind, too. Wind damage also occurred in the area of the tornado damage.

5. Mar 6, 1996Thunderstorm Wind$1.2 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Strong wind with the thunderstorm that had already produced three short track tornadoes across southern sections of the city of Montgomery cut a swath of damage that extended to the southeast. Beginning just inside South Boulevard in the vicinity of the Carriage Hills area, the wind damaged the television studio along South Boulevard. Moving through the Carriage Hills area on a southeast path into the Bell Chase area, the wind damaged roofs to homes, businesses, apartments, and schools. The campus of St. James Collier suffered extensive damage.

6. Aug 2, 2021Lightning$850,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning caused a fire at the Elevate 5050 Apartment Complex. Twelve units were destroyed.

7. Mar 6, 1996Tornado$800,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This was the third in a series of four tornadoes that occurred across the southern and eastern sections of the city of Montgomery. The tornado occurred in the Woodley Road area of southern Montgomery just inside the South Boulevard by-pass. Trees were downed along with power lines and roof damage was caused to homes and businesses.

8. Mar 6, 1996Tornado$700,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This was the second in a series of four tornadoes that occurred across the southern and eastern sections of Montgomery. This short track tornado damaged homes and businesses in the Druid Hills/Powelldale area just inside South Boulevard. Strong wind also accompanied the tornado causing some property damage.

9. Mar 1, 2007Tornado$650,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   After crossing into Montgomery County, the Lowndes County tornado continued to move northeastward, affecting the Davenport, Fleta, Ada, and Sprague Communities, as well as the Ridgeland Farm subdivision. The tornado eventually lifted just east of US Highway 231 near the Carters Hill community. Two of the injuries occurred when an automobile was thrown off the road over 300 feet. In all at least 39 homes suffered varying degrees of damage. Three of the homes were completely destroyed. At least 23 out-buildings or barns were damaged. Five large chicken houses were completely obliterated near the Davenport community. One high voltage power transmission line was totally destroyed.…

10. Feb 19, 1996Thunderstorm Wind$500,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    What was believed to be a strong microburst damaged five industrial buildings in the Gunter Industrial Park on the northeast side of the city of Montgomery. Fifteen people in one of the buildings damaged received minor injuries.

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°F4 times, most recently Aug 14, 2007

All-time low

0°FJan 21, 1985

Warmest night

80°F2 times, most recently Jul 15, 1980

Coldest day

21°FDec 23, 1989

Wettest day

8.72 inSep 26, 1953

Snowiest day

3.8 inMar 13, 1993

Hottest year

2016mean 68.6°F

Coldest year

1976mean 62.4°F

Wettest year

198975.49 in

Driest year

195426.82 in

Snowiest season

6.0 in1976-77

Station Montgomery Airport (USW00013895), 217 ft elevation, 10.6 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1948 to October 26, 2026; 99.9% 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 USW00013895.
• 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.