Shelby County

Every recorded tornado

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

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. Nov 15, 2005Tornado$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A strong F3 tornado touched down in northern Bartholomew county on 15 November 2005, continuing into southeast Shelby county, where it would do the majority of its damage. No one was killed by this powerful tornado, despite areas of severe damage, and only one minor injury was reported. A resident sustained an ankle injury when moving quickly down into his basement with his family to take cover. The worst damage along the tornado's path took place along and near Vandalia Road just east of the town of Geneva, where a large hog farm was severely damaged, and an old farm house was blown off its foundation. The structural integrity of the destroyed home was insufficient to justify a…

2. Mar 31, 2006Tornado$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A tornado touched down just west of Interstate 65 and Main Street in Greenwood on the evening of 31 March 2006. This tornado was on the ground for 25 minutes, covered an area 17 miles long, and caused significant damage to several homes and businesses along its path, which continued into neighboring Shelby County. At its peak, near the small town of London in Shelby County, the tornado was a strong F2, with a width of four tenths of a mile. The tornado lifted near US 52 and State Road 9 in north central Shelby County. According to the American Red Cross of Greater Indianapolis, more than 140 homes were damaged, some of them severely. Fortunately, no fatalities or life-threatening…

3. Nov 24, 2001Tornado$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A weak F1 tornado embedded in a squall line cut a 16 mile path across Shelby County. 20 residences and an auto body shop were damaged in Gwynneville, while 7 businesses and 3 homes were damaged in or near Shelbyville. Damage was estimated around 1 million dollars.

4. Jun 11, 2026Tornado$400,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   An EF-1 tornado with path length of 11.94 miles and a path width of 200 yards began in Johnson county and continued into Shelby county with 9.47 miles of it within Shelby county. The tornado had a peak wind of 105 mph with peak winds. Within Shelby county, the most intense damage happened along homes near 600W and 75W with several homes impacted along with widespread tree damage.

5. Jan 4, 2005Flood, Shelby$250,000
   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…

6. Jun 3, 2008Tornado$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The tornado touched down in Shelby County at 2004 EST 200 meters north of the County Road South 500 East and County Road East 500 South intersection. The tornado tracked to the east northeast for 2.93 miles before entering Rush County at 2012 EST near County Road South 1000 West just south of County Road East 450 South. The tornado continued to the northeast for 6.75 miles until lifting at 2030 EST. The tornado lifted 200 meters east of County Road South 400 West and 400 meters north of West State Road 244. The tornado was on the ground for a total of 9.68 miles and 26 minutes. The tornado was an EF-0 with wind speeds around 75 miles per hour while in Shelby County, however…

7. Apr 20, 1996Lightning$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning caused a fire that destroyed a home in Shelbyville.

8. May 21, 2022Tornado$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The third tornado to impact central Indiana on May 21st, a long-track EF1, skipped along its entire path. Many trees were downed or uprooted, with the damage path maximized in town of Mount Auburn where tornado width reached 100 yards. Peak winds estimated at 110 mph.

9. Jun 7, 2008Flash Flood$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Damage occurred to numerous homes and other structures, as well as bridges, culverts, and county roads due to heavy rain that caused flash flooding. Two hundred to three hundred homes were affected.

10. Mar 23, 2012Hail$125,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    WTHR13 in Indianapolis reported hail up to the size of golf balls and hail piling up over four inches. Residents mentioned that the hail knocked birds out of the sky, stripped the bark off trees, and took and 18-foot piece of gutter off a house. ||The Shelby county emergency manager reported that the hail from this storm caused damage to approximately 100 homes from Fairland to Fountaintown. Mainly cosmetic damage was observed, with a few roof leaks, siding damage, a few broken windows, and roof damage. He also reported damage to the roof of the Fountaintown Volunteer Fire Department.

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

108°FJul 14, 1936

All-time low

−25°FJan 19, 1994

Warmest night

81°FJun 29, 1894

Coldest day

−10°FJan 17, 1977

Wettest day

5.35 inJun 19, 2021

Snowiest day

9.7 inDec 27, 2012

Hottest year

1931mean 57.4°F

Coldest year

1969mean 49.3°F

Wettest year

201159.96 in

Driest year

193424.81 in

Snowiest season

42.7 in2013-14

Station Shelbyville Sewage Plt (USC00127999), 752 ft elevation, 0.5 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1893 to October 27, 2026; 97.4% 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 USC00127999.
• 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.