Nez Perce County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Nez Perce 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 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 ID GS (509), 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. Jul 24, 2024Wildfire, Lewiston Area$12.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Gwen Fire started on July 24 from lightning. It burned 28820 acres of timber and grass. 156 structures were lost including 38 residences. Cost is estimated.

2. Jul 3, 2024Wildfire, Lewis And Southern Nez Perce$7.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Billy Creek Fire started on July 3rd by undetermined cause. It was contained on July 13. It burned 3169 acres of grassland. Two structures were lost. Cost is estimated.

3. Aug 1, 2024Wildfire, Lewiston Area$6.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Gwen Fire started on July 24 from lightning. It was contained on August 8. It burned 28820 acres of timber and grass. 156 structures were lost including 38 residences. Cost is estimated.

4. May 8, 2005Flash Flood$4.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A slow moving thunderstorm moved 2 miles east of the town of Lapwai on the afternoon of the 8th of May. An estimated 2 to 3 inches fell across the headwaters of Garden Gulch Creek in about an hour. A flash flood then raced through Garden Gulch and flooded out structures, killed some livestock and washed out roads to the intersection of State Route 95 and Garden Gulch Road. An estimated 4 million dollars in property and roads was estimated in a five mile swath along Garden Gulch.

5. Sep 2, 2011Wildfire, Lewis And Southern Nez Perce$3.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A relatively small wildfire of around 75 acres completely destroyed a historic railroad trestle. The estimated cost to rebuild the trestles and railroad track to its original state was between three and four million dollars.

6. Aug 2, 2014Wildfire, Lewis And Southern Nez Perce$2.3 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Three firefighters were injured fighting the blaze. One firefighter received a three inch gash on his right leg from a chain saw and required stitches. Another firefighter suffered heat related problems and a third sustained a scratched cornea. Two hundred homes were threatened from the fire with only nine structures lost, four which were cabins along the Snake River.

7. Jun 12, 2022Flood$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Us95 is down to one lane at milepost 296 due to flooding over roadway. time estimated based on dot report.

8. Jun 9, 2023Flash Flood$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Flash flooding impacted several streets and avenues of Lewiston. It stalled vehicles and caused debris build up in the area. A local emergency was declared from damages sustained during the event. Half an inch of rain fell in 15 minutes from 1330LST to 1345LST.

9. May 6, 2005Flash Flood$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   On the evening of the 6th of May, a slow moving line of thunderstorms moved across central Idaho. These thunderstorms dumped one to three inches of rain in an hour across portions of the Idaho Palouse. A flash flood moved into Hubble Gulch and washed out Hubble Gulch Road and a few structures in Nez Perce County. Numerous roads were also washed out in Latah County with the same storms. There was an estimated 2 million dollars damage to roads and structures total for both counties because of the flash flooding.

10. Jun 12, 2022Flood$750,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Us95 is down to one lane at milepost 296 due to flooding over roadway. time estimated based on dot report.

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°F2 times, most recently Jun 29, 2021

All-time low

−22°F2 times, most recently Dec 30, 1968

Warmest night

79°F2 times, most recently Jul 1, 2021

Coldest day

−8°FDec 30, 1968

Wettest day

1.80 inJul 10, 1998

Snowiest day

8.7 inJan 15, 1950

Hottest year

2015mean 56.4°F

Coldest year

1955mean 49.0°F

Wettest year

195018.72 in

Driest year

20077.73 in

Snowiest season

49.8 in1955-56

Station Lewiston Airport (USW00024149), 1,430 ft elevation, 3.3 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 USW00024149.
• 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.