Sebastian County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Sebastian County: 16.
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

The National Weather Service sets flood stages for 1 gauge here but lists no crests for it.

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.

Mapped landslides

Mapped by East OK, West AR (Regmi and Walter, 2020) (61).

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. Apr 21, 1996Tornado$150 million
2. Aug 1, 2011Wildfire, Sebastian$6.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Very dry, hot, and breezy conditions, along with extremely dry fuels as a result of the long-term drought the region has experienced, promoted the rapid spread of a wildfire on the 3rd. This fire was originally started on July 28th by a child playing with fireworks near Greenwood. The fire spread onto the Fort Chaffee military installation and was under control on the 29th thanks to the work of numerous fire departments and the National Guard. Although it was under control, the fire continued to flare up from time to time. The resurgence of the fire on August 3rd resulted in 120 structures being burned down.

3. Dec 3, 1999Tornado$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A gustnado occurred at 122 am near Phoenix and 46th street in Fort Smith and was on the ground for approximately 20 seconds. 3 warehouses and 2 office buildings were heavily damaged. A motor home,construction trailer and cessna airplane were also destroyed. There was also damage to a hangar at the Fort Smith airport and minor damage was done to 2 commuter planes.

4. May 19, 2025Tornado$1.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   This is the second segment of a two segment tornado. The tornado moved into Sebastian County west of Bonanza and moved northeast toward White Bluff. It was weak between Highway 112, across the north side of Bonanza, to just west of Highway 71, with mostly small trees uprooted and large tree limbs snapped in that segment of the path. It strengthened as it approached Highway 71, where trees were uprooted or snapped. The tornado then moved across Fort Chaffee, where 40 buildings were damaged, and trees were snapped or uprooted, and then turned east-northeast, dissipating before crossing Highway 22. It produced a tornadic debris signature from the KSRX WSR-88D. Based on this damage,…

5. Jun 16, 2004Flash Flood$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Torrential rain hit Greenwood where a total of near 6 inches of rain was reported. The rain caused widespread flooding with 90 homes and seven businesses effected.

6. Jun 19, 2004Flash Flood$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms produced in excess of 2 inches of rain in a short period of time across Sebastian County. The ground was already saturated from rains a few days earlier and substantial floooding occurred. Some homes which were flooded a few days earlier in Greenwood were flooded again. However, the most substantial flooding occurred in the Fort Smith area. About 10 homes in the Briarcliff and South 28th Street area were flooded with up to 16 inches of water. Some businesses in south Fort Smith were also flooded. There was deep street flooding in parts of south Fort Smith with abandoned cars floating around South 28th Street and Cavanaugh. Highway 45 south of Fort Smith had to be…

7. May 3, 2021Tornado$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   This is the third segment of a four segment tornado. The tornado moved across the Arkansas River and into Sebastian County, uprooting numerous trees before moving across the northern portion of the City of Fort Smith. Numerous homes and businesses were damaged by this large tornado, numerous power poles were snapped, and many trees were uprooted before the tornado crossed the Arkansas River again, moving back into Crawford County. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in this segment of the tornado was 95 to 105 mph.

8. Oct 3, 2007Flash Flood$800,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rain caused flash flooding across the northern half of Sebastian county. Severe street flooding occurred in Fort Smith and Greenwood.|In Greenwood, water entered 80 homes and several businesses. 28 homes were severely damaged. In rural areas, Highway 60 had water over it 3 miles east of Washburn and water covered the intersection of Highway 96 and Highway 22 near Lavaca.

9. Nov 10, 1998Tornado$750,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   An F1 tornado touched down in extreme eastern Oklahoma between Arkoma and Pocola and then moved northeast into western Arkansas, moving across the southern part of Fort Smith and finally lifting at the Fort Smith Regional Airport (FSM). Along the way, many homes and businesses sustained damage ranging from minor to major. This includes several homes in the Random Acres subdivision near the Oklahoma border where shingles were blown off many roofs. Trees and power lines were blown down throughout the tornado's path.Some of the tornado's worst damage occurred at the Fort Smith Regional Airport, where eight private and corporate airplanes were damaged, including three single-engine…

10. Dec 5, 2013Ice Storm, Sebastian$600,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Arctic air spread across northwestern Arkansas on the 4th as a strong storm system developed across the western United States. Several upper level disturbances moved through the south central part of the country on the 5th through the 6th, resulting in widespread wintry precipitation across the region beginning during the morning hours of the 5th. The precipitation fell as mainly freezing rain across west central Arkansas and as snow and sleet across northwestern Arkansas. The precipitation changed to all snow by the time it ended on the 6th. By the end of the storm, portions of west central Arkansas received over an inch of ice. Power outages were widespread across Sebastian,…

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

115°FAug 3, 2011

All-time low

−10°FJan 11, 1977

Warmest night

84°F2 times, most recently Aug 3, 2011

Coldest day

8°FDec 24, 1983

Wettest day

6.81 inNov 24, 1973

Snowiest day

11.0 in2 times, most recently Jan 27, 2000

Hottest year

2012mean 66.2°F

Coldest year

1979mean 58.0°F

Wettest year

201573.93 in

Driest year

198026.46 in

Snowiest season

21.9 in1977-78

Station Fort Smith Regional Airport (USW00013964), 448 ft elevation, 1.2 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1945 to October 26, 2026; 100.0% 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.

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 USW00013964.
• 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.