Pickens County

Every recorded tornado

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

Mapped landslides

Mapped by NASA (2).

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 27, 2011Tornado$8.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia and the Cherokee County Emergency Management Director confirmed that the EF3 tornado that touched down in northern Bartow county, five miles northeast of Kingston and continued across extreme northwest Cherokee county, also continued into western Pickens county before lifting. The tornado tracked northeast across Pickens county, entering the county almost five miles west-southwest of Talmadge and lifting approximately two miles east of Hinton or seven miles west of Jasper. Within in Pickens county extensive damage was observed along Henderson Mountain Road and Bryant Road where…

2. Nov 11, 2002Tornado$5.6 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The tornado that originated in Cherokee county near Beasley Gap, continued into and across Pickens county. Once again, the National Weather Service disaster survey team determined that this was a multi-segmented tornado, with much of the damage along the path caused by straight line winds of at least 70 mph. The tornado entered the county southwest of Cagle, then continued on to just north of Tate roughly paralleling Georgia Highway 108, then turned more eastward along Georgia Highway 53 to near Marblehill, through the Big Canoe golf course and recreation area, then east of Big Canoe into extreme western Dawson county. There was definite evidence of F2 tornadic damage just north…

3. Sep 5, 2011Tornado$3.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Pickens County Emergency Management Director confirmed that the EF1 tornado, which originally touched down in far southern Cherokee county just west of Woodstock and continued on a north-northeastward track across eastern Cherokee county, entered Pickens county at the city of Nelson. Damage in Pickens county remained consistent with an EF1 rating. From here, the tornado continued north-northeast to just past Marble Hill before finally lifting. Within Pickens county the tornado had a path length of approximately five miles with a maximum path width of 220 yards or 1/8 mile. Eleven homes were damaged along the path of the tornado within Pickens county. One of these homes was…

4. Jan 22, 2000Ice Storm, Pickens$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…

5. Aug 15, 2006Lightning$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Pickens County Progress of Jasper reported that lightning struck the Big Canoe Golf Shop. The building was a total loss, including a restaurant, pro shop, locker rooms, and a bar. Later investigations determined that lightning likely entered the building via a two-way radio antenna into the pro shop. Lightning also damaged several other buildings in downtown Jasper, including a lawyer's office, the Carriage House, and the Savor Restaurant.

6. Jul 20, 2023Thunderstorm Wind$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Approximately 500 trees down across Pickens County with county wide power outages. Damage has affected roughly 60 roads and a few homes damaged.

7. Aug 2, 2008Hail$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The public observed penny, quarter, and golf ball-sized hail in western Pickens county from the northwest corner to the southwest corner, west of Blaine. Radar data suggests that hail of similar size likely fell all the way to the Cherokee county line in the southwest corner of the county.

8. Jun 18, 2011Thunderstorm Wind$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Pickens County Emergency Management Director widespread and extensive tree damage across the county with dozens of trees were down throughout the county. Several structures were damaged from downed trees and several roads were blocked.

9. Mar 23, 2011Thunderstorm Wind$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia and the Pickens County Emergency Management Director confirmed that extensive damage to trees and property across the northern half of Pickens county was the result of a 75 mph straight-line thunderstorm winds. Two large chicken houses, just south-southwest of Talking Rock, collapsed and were destroyed. Eight homes in the same general area suffered minor damage from downed trees and/or tree limbs. In Jasper, the roof of a large building was removed by the strong winds. It should be noted, however, that this roof was built on top of an existing roof. Several power lines were also…

10. Mar 20, 2001High Wind, Pickens$250,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A very strong, cutoff upper-level low pressure system moved slowly through the southeast U.S. from the evening of the 19th of March through the morning of the 20th. The accompanying surface low took a path from near Columbus, Georgia to near Athens, Georgia, to near Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina between midnight and noon on the 20th. Very strong east to northeast winds accompanied the surface low as it took this path through central and northeast Georgia during the early morning hours on the 20th. Sustained wind speeds of 30 to 40 mph with gusts to near 60 mph were common throughout central, north central, and northeast Georgia during the morning hours on the 20th,…

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

103°F2 times, most recently Jul 17, 1980

All-time low

−14°FJan 20, 1985

Warmest night

79°FJun 27, 1988

Coldest day

2°FJan 20, 1985

Wettest day

7.41 inSep 17, 2004

Snowiest day

11.5 inFeb 29, 1968

Hottest year

1946mean 61.9°F

Coldest year

1976mean 56.0°F

Wettest year

198980.95 in

Driest year

201029.68 in

Snowiest season

15.3 in1967-68

Station Jasper 1 Nnw (USC00094648), 1,465 ft elevation, 1.5 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1940 to October 27, 2026; 93.8% 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 USC00094648.
• 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.