Morton County

Every recorded tornado

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

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. May 31, 1996Hail$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Hail stones went through roofs of homes. Major tree damage.

2. Aug 15, 2006Heavy Rain$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   7.12 inches of rain in the last 24 hours. Many stranded motorists. Many basements were flooded.

3. Apr 6, 2001Tornado$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Rapidly moving tornado completely destroyed a mobile home. Female occupant ended up in some bushes and had a broken arm. Male occupant had debris in his eye. Their truck was rolled into trees and nearby outbuildings were demolished. Location of this home was north of Rolla. Elsewhere, 20 power poles were taken down, damage was done to buildings in Rolla with a garage losing its roof. Several silos were damaged or destroyed in the path of the tornado.

4. Apr 15, 2016Tornado$80,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The tornado pulled the center of the irrigation sprinkler out of the concrete. There was some damage to outbuildings near the path of the tornado. It appeared that perhaps 5 inches of rain fell in 2 hours.

5. Aug 25, 1998Thunderstorm Wind$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Microburst destroyed a mobile home that was unoccupied at the time. An outbuilding had a tree limb impaled into it.

6. Jul 23, 1996Thunderstorm Wind$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   tree fell on car...garage blown over...tree limbs down...fences blown down

7. Jun 6, 2005Thunderstorm Wind$15,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The roof off an old lumber building was blown off. Also power lines were down in the area.

8. Dec 18, 2000High Wind, Morton$800
   National Weather Service narrative

   High wind occurred across much of the area producing frequent gusts from 50 to 56 knots. In Larned (Pawnee county), a roof blown off a business and traveled down the street impacting another business. Vehicles were smashed from the debris. In Dodge City (Ford county), the visibility was reduced to zero in blowing dust. Also, the wind demolished a trampoline and swing set on the west side of town. A car windshield was broken at a location 13 miles west of Richfield (Morton county). The majority of the $76.3 k damage wasdone in Larned.

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

110°F5 times, most recently Jun 27, 1980

All-time low

−22°FJan 19, 1984

Warmest night

86°FJun 30, 1901

Coldest day

−3°FDec 22, 1990

Wettest day

6.80 inJul 31, 1911

Snowiest day

23.0 inMay 1, 2017

Hottest year

2012mean 59.3°F

Coldest year

1903mean 52.8°F

Wettest year

194129.74 in

Driest year

19638.50 in

Snowiest season

59.0 in1902-03

Station Elkhart (USC00142432), 3,599 ft elevation, 3.6 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1900 to October 27, 2026; 99.2% 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 USC00142432.
• 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.