Montgomery County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Montgomery County: 6.
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

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.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. May 18, 2000Hail$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A series of supercell storms dumped hail from golfball to softball size across a large portion of the northern half of the IND CWA. The storms moved across a warm front that stretched across central Indiana. Numerous cars, car lots and homes had extensive damage estimated around 75 million dollars. Frankfort, Anderson and Muncie were hardest hit. In addition, three homes in New Whiteland were burned to the ground by a lightning strike. Later in the evening, a squall line moved across the same area producing only isolated hail reports.

2. Jun 29, 2023Thunderstorm Wind$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Power pole and tree snapped by thunderstorm wind gusts. Extensive damage reported across much of the county with over 4000 power outages.

3. Jan 21, 1999Flash Flood$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   3 to 4 inches of rain fell across the county causing two basements to flood and collapse, while part of State Road 47 was washed away causing a car to be totalled. Several homes also received minor damage with leaky roofs.

4. Jul 2, 1996Thunderstorm Wind$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorm winds knocked numerous trees down and overturned a mobile home. Several homes were damaged by falling trees and high winds. A few county roads were closed due to downed trees.

5. Oct 24, 2001Thunderstorm Wind$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Several supercell thunderstorms and a squall line moved across Central Indiana during the afternoon and early evening of October 24. There were numerous reports of large hail and downed trees as well as a brief tornado touchdown near Williams. Notable damage reports included semi's blown off the highway at several locations, a mobile destroyed at Wesport and several barns destroyed and roofs blown off homes at various locations. A very strong cold front and negatively tilted trough combined with very unstable conditions and strong wind shear allowed many of the storms to develop rotating wall clouds, however only 1 brief touchdown occurred.

6. Aug 24, 2016Tornado$75,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This EF-2 tornado, with maximum wind speeds of 120 mph, largely tracked over open country. Major damage to homes and barns occurred near Linnsburg. Numerous trees damaged. Emergency responders reported 30 homes with damage as a result of this tornado.

7. Feb 20, 2014Tornado$75,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A National Weather Service Indianapolis survey team identified weak tornado damage in the Crawfordsville area which occurred during the severe weather on February 20. The survey team rated this tornado an EF0 with winds estimated around 80 mph. The tornado began around 740 PM near County Road 150 South and County Road 200 East on the southeast side of Crawfordsville, and continued a path northeast to near Darlington, lifting around 748 PM. During that time the tornado damaged numerous outbuildings, removed shingles from homes, damaged a part of the Pilot truck stop canopy, and sheared off numerous tree tops.

8. Apr 14, 2006Thunderstorm Wind$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A building on the Wabash College campus lost a portion of its roof, and widely scattered tree damage occurred throughout Crawfordsville.

9. May 12, 2002Flash Flood$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms moved across all of central Indiana during the day of May 12 and continuing into the evening. These thunderstorms produced very heavy rain, with many areas seeing more than one round of thunderstorms. The result was extensive flash flooding. Numerous roads were closed, including state roads and U.S. highways. A couple of bridges were washed out, and some culverts were destroyed. At Ball State University in Delaware county, residence halls experienced flooding. Elsewhere in Delaware county water was up to 6 feet deep at underpasses. At Vincennes in Knox county, a trailer park was evacuated resulting in 80 families being moved to a shelter. Other smaller evacuations…

10. Apr 5, 2023Tornado$50,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    The tornado touched down on the west side of County Road 1050 East|just south of US Route 136. At this location, roof panels were|peeled back on a garage and center cut roofing material was thrown|500 yards. Some siding was peeled off the house.||The tornado moved northeast and crossed US Route 136 with|additional damage to two structures along East New Ross Road, a|house and an outbuilding. The wind entered the open door of the|outbuilding, blew out a wall panel and pulled nails straight out.|A short distance to the north, the house had its eastern garage wall blown out|after the corner of the structure bent inwards. A grill was|thrown to the east-northeast about 20 yards.

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

102°FJun 26, 1988

All-time low

−31°FJan 19, 1994

Warmest night

79°FJul 26, 2012

Coldest day

−13°FDec 24, 1983

Wettest day

5.66 inJun 23, 2010

Snowiest day

11.8 inJan 6, 2014

Hottest year

1998mean 53.8°F

Coldest year

2014mean 47.2°F

Wettest year

199255.65 in

Driest year

199532.51 in

Snowiest season

56.3 in2013-14

Station Crawfordsville 6 Se (USC00121873), 836 ft elevation, 5.7 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1982 to October 27, 2026; 94.4% 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 USC00121873.
• 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.