Jackson County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Jackson County: 5.
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.

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. Oct 2, 2005Flash Flood$700,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Highway 16 closed near Denison as well as between Birmingham and Holton due to deep fast flowing water over the road. Many other county roads also closed due to fast flowing deep water.

2. Oct 2, 2005Flood, Jackson$290,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A record breaking flood event occurred October 1st into October 3rd over a part of Northeast Kansas. Intense rainfall during the late evening of October 1st through the early morning of October 2nd brought six to twelve inches of rain to southern Pottawatomie, northern Shawnee, and much of Jefferson and Jackson counties. An unofficial report of 14.9 inches of rain was recorded on the north edge of Hoyt in southern Jackson County. Fortunately, no deaths were reported but a total of 9 injuries occurred. Damage totaled in the millions of dollars to personal property as well as to transportation, sewer and water distribution infrastructures. The governor declared a state of emergency…

3. May 22, 2008Flash Flood$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Water was reported to be running over roadways across portions of the county. M Road was littered with debris as a result of water flowing over the road. Several raods were deemed impassable. Portions of N Road sunk or developed large holes. The backwall of a bridge collapsed near the intersection of 246 and N Roads. Rainfall reports near the roadways most significantly affected by the heavy rainfall included eight inches of rain in the Whiting area, and four inches to the north of Holton.

4. Mar 8, 2002High Wind, Jackson$202,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Strong outflow from thunderstorms nearby caused high winds to reach speeds of 70 mph in places as they spread from west to east over a 5 county area. In Paxico tree limbs were downed and a junior high school extensively damaged. A 20 by 40 foot hole was found in the roof of the school. In Delia the siding was blown off of a house.

5. Oct 1, 2005Flash Flood$190,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Muddy Creek flooding Highway 75 a foot deep in several places.

6. Jun 4, 2005Flood, Jackson$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Moderate flooding was reported along Soldier creek in southern Jackson and northwest Shawnee counties.

7. Jun 27, 2007Flash Flood$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A quarter mile west of E road and 122nd..fast flowing water up to a foot deep was over the road. A half mile west of E road and 118th...a watershed pond was overflowing across the road with a depth of about 2 feet. Around 3.2 inches of rain reported.

8. Jun 28, 1999Flash Flood$80,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rains in a short time period caused flash flooding which damaged several roads and bridges and did extensive crop damage.

9. Mar 30, 2006Lightning$75,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning struck a watershed district building and showered down fist sized pieces of concrete to the street below. One piece of concrete hit and damaged a car.

10. Apr 15, 2006Tornado$75,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    This F0 tornado touched down 3.5 miles northeast of Circleville, damaging some outbuildings and trees. It countinued moving northeast for 10 miles through Jackson County, passing through the northwest side of Netawaka before crossing into Brown County approximately 3 miles north of Whiting. At times it was 100 yards wide, and was spawned from a supercell thunderstorm. It caused approximately 75,000 dollars damage to outbuildings.

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

112°FAug 2, 2011

All-time low

−26°FDec 23, 1989

Warmest night

85°FJul 14, 1980

Coldest day

−7°FDec 22, 1989

Wettest day

5.61 inSep 23, 2005

Snowiest day

15.2 inJan 9, 1993

Hottest year

2012mean 59.8°F

Coldest year

1979mean 51.5°F

Wettest year

197360.89 in

Driest year

196319.07 in

Snowiest season

44.4 in1959-60

Station Topeka Asos (USW00013996), 880 ft elevation, 23.8 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1946 to October 26, 2026; 100.0% 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 USW00013996.
• 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.