Madison County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Madison County: 0.
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.

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. Sep 16, 2004Tornado$1.3 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A damage assessment conducted by the National Weather Service and the Madison County Emergency Management Director concluded that a 7-mile long path, 150-yard wide, F1 tornado with near 100 mph winds was spawned by the remnants of Tropical Storm Ivan causing major damage to several large homes in a country club, along with extensive damage to trees and power lines along its path. The tornado began just south of Georgia Highway 72, just east of Colbert, near the intersection of Walnut Grove Church Road and Kingston Road and continued moving north-northwest around 40 mph, terminating near the Madison County High School on Georgia Highway 98, just west of Danielsville. The most…

2. Jan 22, 2000Ice Storm, Madison$980,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Wintry precipitation plagued the northern third of Georgia beginning Saturday and continued into Sunday. A shallow cold airmass with single-digit dewpoint temperatures was in place over north Georgia, with temperatures in the upper 20s to lower 30s over much of the area. An upper level disturbance moved rapidly over the area in a fast zonal flow, bringing an increase in mid-tropospheric moisture. At the same time, lower level moisture spread into the area from the Gulf of Mexico. Precipitation began falling into the colder layer of air near the surface by mid-morning on the 22nd. The mixture of light rain, snow and sleet had spread from northwest to northeast Georgia by early…

3. Mar 15, 2008Hail$800,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A cooperative observed in Ila reported hail larger than baseballs, namely 3.00 inch diameter hail. Hail the size of baseballs was observed further southeast just west of Danielsville. Radar supported that large hail continued to the southeast part of the county.

4. Mar 1, 2009Heavy Snow, Madison$600,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Up to seven inches of snow was reported in Madison county. This was the highest snowfall total from any county within the Peachtree City forecast area. Extensive and widespread downed trees and power lines were observed across the county. Fourteen chicken houses were down on 11 farms, affecting 190,000 birds. The roofs of the houses collapsed from the weight of the heavy snow. Thousands of residents in the area were left without power, in some cases for several days.

5. May 6, 2003Tornado$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A storm survey team from the National Weather Service office in Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina and the Madison county Emergency Management Director determined that an F1 tornado touched down in extreme northeast Madison county in the city of Harrison and traveled on the ground to the east for 3 miles passing into Elbert county west of Bowman. The tornado ranged from 100 to 200 yards wide. Twenty homes in the area sustained moderate to major damage, two mobile homes were destroyed, two chicken houses were destroyed and a host of other outbuildings were demolished, including a garage and auto shop off Georgia Highway 281, an adjacent pickup truck, a block shop and adjacent…

6. Jul 23, 2000Thunderstorm Wind$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Comer News and the Madison county 911 center reported widespread damage across Madison county. Extensive damage was reported to 3 chicken houses, power lines, and hundreds of trees, some more than 100 years old. The hardest hit areas of the county were the western sections from Cromers, to Shiloh, to Pocataligo, to Ila. The Shiloh area was especially hard hit where countless trees were uprooted and snapped in two. In addition, a steeple was toppled at the Jones Chapel in Shiloh by the strong thunderstorm winds.

7. Apr 10, 2009Hail$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The public observed golf ball-sized hail in the southwest part of the county from a second severe thunderstorm that moved east out of southern Jackson county.

8. Apr 23, 2009Hail$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The public observed golf ball-sized hail in the southwest part of Madison county. They reported that it hail for up to 12 minutes in this area.

9. Jan 28, 2005Winter Storm, Madison$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A significant and fairly prolonged winter storm/ice storm affected nearly all of North and Central Georgia from the evening of Friday January 28th to late morning on Sunday January 30th. The winter storm was a result of a very strong and very cold Arctic surface high pressure system located across the Mid-Atlantic states and an upper-level disturbance moving across the region from the west. North of a line from La Grange, to Thomaston, to Sandersville, the precipitation fell mostly as a mixture of sleet and freezing rain, with typical accumulations of one-half inch glaze ice and one to two inches of sleet. Some areas in North Central and Northeast Georgia experienced significant…

10. Jul 7, 2005Flash Flood$150,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    The Madison County 911 Center reported flash flooding in several parts of the county. Several roads were washed out, including Danielsville Road in Comer at Georgia Highway 98, Jay Davis Road in the eastern portion of the county, and Peach Orchard Road in the central portion of the county. Repeated rounds of very heavy tropical rain associated with the remnants of tropical storm Cindy tracked across the county starting just before midnight and ending around 7 am EDT. Rainfall averaged four to six inches across much of the county during this period.

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

109°FJun 29, 2012

All-time low

−4°FJan 21, 1985

Warmest night

79°F4 times, most recently Aug 11, 2007

Coldest day

18°FJan 30, 1966

Wettest day

9.93 inJun 4, 1967

Snowiest day

8.7 inMar 24, 1983

Hottest year

2016mean 65.0°F

Coldest year

1968mean 59.7°F

Wettest year

196471.39 in

Driest year

195428.61 in

Snowiest season

10.6 in1982-83

Station Athens Ben Epps Airport (USW00013873), 784 ft elevation, 11.7 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1944 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 USW00013873.
• 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.