Geary County

Every recorded tornado

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

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Jun 15, 2004Flash Flood$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rain caused flash flooding with water covering roadways. Considerable damage occurred to farmland due to errosion. Many roads and bridges were also heavily damaged.

2. Jun 4, 2005Flash Flood$400,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Up to six inches of rain brought widespread flooding around the city. Some cars were swept away with numerous roads closed and cars stalled. Fortunately, no injuries were reported.

3. May 6, 2007Flash Flood$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Flash flooding from over 5 inches of rain closed a number of county roads. A locomotive fell through a trestle that collapsed after being weakened by the flooding on Ft. Riley. No one on the train was injured.

4. Jul 13, 1997Tornado$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A tornado touched down on the southwest tip of Milford Lake and travelled east across the southern end of the lake. The tornado destroyed a fish cleaning station, rolled several campers and picnic tables into the lake and tore the roof off a well built outdoor rest room. Three people were injured when they were thrown out of their camper. The tornado also removed shingles from one house and pushed two pickup trucks into each other.

5. Sep 7, 2001Tornado$170,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The tornado mentioned above entered Geary county at 4:34 pm 5 miles southsouthwest of Milford and moved northeast across Lake Milford before dissipating 3 miles east of the town of Milford. A powerline substation was destroyed along with a 5,100 square foot maintenance facility near Lake Milford. A farmstead along the path of the tornado suffered considerable damage.

6. Jun 15, 2004Hail$130,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Large hail did considerable damage to a number of houses and vehicles in Junction City.

7. Jun 3, 2005Flash Flood$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   8 to 10 inches of fast flowing water across highway 57.

8. Jun 3, 2005Flash Flood$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   K-57 highway had at least 6 inches of fast flowing water across road.

9. Nov 27, 2005Tornado$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado touched down on Fort Riley Army Base approximately 3 miles northeast of Junction City and moved north for one mile before crossing into Riley county approximately 4 miles northeast of Junction City. It produced F1 damage to trees and headstones in the Fort Riley cemetery area. The Fort was without power for several hours. The parent thunderstorm was a mini-supercell.

10. Jun 10, 2005Flood, Geary$100,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Ponding of water over numerous county highways from recent heavy rains.

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°FAug 19, 2023

All-time low

−21°F2 times, most recently Feb 20, 2025

Warmest night

85°FSep 1, 2011

Coldest day

0°FFeb 15, 2021

Wettest day

4.80 inAug 23, 2004

Hottest year

2012mean 58.3°F

Coldest year

2008mean 52.6°F

Wettest year

201942.16 in

Driest year

200220.95 in

Station Manhattan Asos (USW00003936), 1,048 ft elevation, 10.8 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1960 to October 26, 2026; 99.3% 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 USW00003936.
• 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.