Pawnee County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Pawnee 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. Aug 2, 1996Thunderstorm Wind$3.2 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Trees blown down...several buildings damaged...power lines blown down...Midas Car Care garage door blown off and had several windows blown out...American Legion roof blew off...1 person injured when a semi truck was blown over on highway 156 just outside of town. At least 15 sprinkler irrigation systems were destroyed. Although officially entered as 100 knots, there were unofficial and unconfirmed reports of 125 MPH winds recorded on home stations. This storm continued south and produced widespread damage into south central Kansas (DERECHO).

2. May 5, 1996Thunderstorm Wind$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Tree limbs down

3. Aug 2, 1996Thunderstorm Wind$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   5 cottonwood trees uprooted...several sheds blown down...part of the roof from a building blown onto 2 combines.

4. May 18, 2013Tornado$140,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado was well documented by storm chasers, spotters and a research team with portable doppler radar. The tornado did turn north towards the end of it's life cycle. Low end EF4 damage was done to a home along US156. The roof and walls were blown away of this well constructed house. Several large tanks were carried a long distance. There were 2 people inside but they escaped injury by taking shelter. Video shows that sub-vortices within the tornado may have actually had a little stronger wind. The Doppler on wheels that was observing the tornado had near surface measured wind speeds of 165 to 185 MPH.

5. May 24, 2011Tornado$110,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The thunderstorm that produced the tornado developed extremely quickly. The tornado did damage to trees and irrigation sprinklers and was rated a high end EF1.

6. May 16, 1999Hail$100,000
7. Aug 14, 2010Thunderstorm Wind$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Damage at the Heritage Feeders was reported. There were many tall standing structures with some sort of damage, including the feed mill, concrete silo, sheds and concrete walls tipped over.

8. Aug 3, 2003Lightning$80,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A house was hit by lightning and was completely destroyed

9. Dec 18, 2000High Wind, Pawnee$75,000
   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.

10. Jun 20, 2009Tornado$50,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Several outbuildings were destroyed by this tornado. It was video taped by folks that were about 2 miles away and they could hardly believe what they were seeing. In fact, several times they doubted it was a tornado but it was clearly a tornado that traveled 5.1 miles north-northeast and heavily damaged two well built and new 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°FJul 28, 2026

All-time low

−21°FDec 22, 1989

Warmest night

83°FJul 14, 1977

Coldest day

−5°FJan 12, 1963

Wettest day

6.40 inJun 15, 1981

Snowiest day

13.1 inJan 28, 2001

Hottest year

2012mean 60.0°F

Coldest year

1951mean 53.0°F

Wettest year

197343.46 in

Driest year

198813.81 in

Snowiest season

42.2 in1992-93

Station Great Bend 3WNW (USC00143218), 1,864 ft elevation, 22.2 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1948 to October 26, 2026; 93.9% 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 USC00143218.
• 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.