Kearny County

Every recorded tornado

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

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. Oct 21, 2008Thunderstorm Wind$3.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorm winds were estimated to be from 90 to 100 mph. A mobile home was destroyed and another was heavily damaged. Two occupants of the destroyed trailer were injured, on seriously. There were also 16 pivot irrigation sprinklers overturned in a 4 mile radius of this location. In addition, 20 power poles were snapped and a large grain bin was destroyed. Large hay bales were blown around and all windows in the machinery and vehicles were blown out.

2. Apr 22, 2010Tornado$180,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado was a mile wide at it's maximum size as witnessed by storm chasers and storm spotters. It did minimal damage to pivot sprinklers and barns as this was a very sparsely populated area.

3. Apr 10, 2001Tornado$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Two pivot spinklers were damaged, a 24 x 36 foot shed was blown down and 30 homes had minor roof damage.

4. Aug 6, 1997Flash Flood$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Widespread stratiform rain fell producing 5 to 10 inches. Flooding washed out a bridge on highway 25 between Lakin and Leoti. A watershed lake filled up to capacity...one that had not had water in it for over 30 years. Rainfall of 2 to 5 inches was widespread across the entire county and other parts of southwest and west central Kansas.

5. Jun 13, 2009Thunderstorm Wind$90,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   High winds and hail of unknown size broke house windows and beat to a pulp fifth wheel travel trailer. Also the wheat crop was completely thrashed. Four inch diameter tree branches were brought down and an pivot irrigation sprinkler was overturned.

6. May 10, 2010High Wind, Kearny$10,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   High winds behind a strong cold front blew over a steeple on a church in Lakin.

7. Mar 14, 2001Thunderstorm Wind$7,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The roof was blown off a building, a semi was overturned and power lines were brought down.

8. Jun 24, 1997Thunderstorm Wind$5,000
9. Jun 9, 2000Thunderstorm Wind$1,500
10. Jun 9, 2000Thunderstorm Wind$1,000

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°F2 times, most recently Aug 9, 1896

All-time low

−23°F2 times, most recently Jan 5, 1942

Warmest night

90°FAug 10, 1896

Coldest day

−7°FJan 7, 1912

Wettest day

5.30 inJun 5, 1949

Snowiest day

15.0 inMar 23, 1957

Hottest year

2012mean 58.5°F

Coldest year

1912mean 50.1°F

Wettest year

194628.13 in

Driest year

19567.53 in

Snowiest season

50.6 in1947-48

Station Lakin (USC00144464), 2,998 ft elevation, 0.8 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1893 to October 12, 2026; 99.4% 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 USC00144464.
• 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.