Carroll County

Every recorded tornado

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

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. Jan 8, 2008Flood$12.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Record flooding occurred along the Tippecanoe River downstream of Oakdale Dam in Carroll County due to heavy rain and snow melt. At least 330 homes in Carroll County met preliminary qualifications to be considered destroyed.

2. Jul 5, 2003Flash Flood$7.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy thunderstorms trained across the northern third of the Indianapolis forecast area with parts of Carroll and Howard counties getting as much as 8 to 10 inches of rain in less than 12 hours. One 36 year old female was killed in Burlington as she attempted to clean out a storm drain and was sucked down. Also, a 62 year old female was killed when she attempted to move her vehicle across a flooded roadway road at State Road 218 and County Road 525 West. She was subsequently swept into a ditch with 9 to 10 feet of water. 25 homes were filled with several feet of water in Delphi adjacent to Deer Creek as a levy broke there. Deer Creek reached a record water level. Flash flooding…

3. Jul 5, 2003Flood, Carroll$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   From from the evening of July 4th and overnight July 5th, 8 to 13 inches of rain fell across parts of Howard, and Carroll counties as storms trained across that area. Numerous storms moved across this area as well through July 11th. This caused record floods along Wildcat Creek from Kokomo to Lafayette. A hospital in Kokomo alone had 5 million dollars worth of damage. 823 homes in Howard County received damage with major damage to 232. Carroll county had damage to 197 homes and Tippecanoe around 300. Kokomo crested at 17.78 feet (FS - 10 feet) on the 5th, and Lafayette crested at 23.64 feet (FS - 10 feet)on the 7th.

4. Feb 5, 2008Flood$750,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Flooding occurred along the Tippecanoe River downstream of Oakdale Dam in Carroll County due to heavy rain and snow melt.

5. Jul 5, 2003Flood, Carroll$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   8 to 10 inches of rain on the 4th followed by intervals of thunderstorms through the 11th caused major flooding along the Tippcanoe River. The river crested at 12.8 inches (FS - 8 feet) on the 10th.

6. Jan 3, 2005Flood, Carroll$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   All of the snow cover from the historic pre-Christmas 2004 snow storm melted by New Year's Day 2005 as the dew point temperatures rose into the 50s. Lowland flooding occurred along the East Fork White River in Jackson County. The White River in southern Indiana rose to bankfull levels. This was the result of the melting snow cover.With warm air over Indiana, a storm system brought 2 to 4 inches of rain to much of central and southern Indiana from the 1st through the 3rd. Because of the saturated soil conditions, widespread local flooding occurred in central and southern Indiana. The major rivers in the state were flooding by the 4th. Another storm system quickly followed from the…

7. Feb 5, 2008Flood$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Flooding occurred along the Tippecanoe River in Carroll County, including west of Delphi, due to heavy rain and snow melt.

8. Jun 6, 2010Tornado$400,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Numerous structures were damaged along the path of this tornado, including several homes, a church, and at least 13 barns. Some of the more significant damage occurred at US Highway 421 and County Road 875 N, with the church receiving roof damage and a boat storage facility having a structure destroyed. This tornado also caused some minor damage to the facility that hosts the transmitter for the NOAA Weather Radio that serves the Lafayette area, WXK-74. The generator on site was damaged. Numerous trees were downed as well. Based on the damage, it appears this was an EF1 tornado with winds near 100 mph. A couple of minor injuries were reported by WLFI.

9. Jun 11, 2026Tornado$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   An EF-0 with path length of 3.38 miles and a path width of 75 yards impacted portions of western Carroll County. The peak winds were 80 mph and the tornado impacted several homes near the Tippecanoe River along with a few hog barns northwest of Delphi.

10. May 16, 2009Flood$125,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Between Flora and Delphi, Indiana several roads and bridges were badly damaged by flood water. Damage cost is grossly estimated.

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

105°F2 times, most recently Jun 25, 1988

All-time low

−23°FJan 20, 1985

Warmest night

81°FJul 14, 1995

Coldest day

−10°FDec 24, 1983

Wettest day

6.05 inAug 30, 1981

Snowiest day

13.9 inDec 19, 1973

Hottest year

2021mean 55.0°F

Coldest year

2014mean 48.3°F

Wettest year

195251.79 in

Driest year

202223.22 in

Station Lafayette Purdue University Airport (USW00014835), 596 ft elevation, 21.5 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1944 to October 26, 2026; 99.1% 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 USW00014835.
• 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.