Rawlins County

Every recorded tornado

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

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. Jul 17, 2009Hail$330,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Siding on north side of home was heavily damaged. A bedroom window was also broken. One thousand acres of farmland suffered heavy to complete damage to crops.

2. Apr 23, 2007Tornado$305,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Tornado developed near Roads C, 19 and dissipated near Roads M, 22 in Rawlins county. This was a high end EF1 tornado producing significant damage to a home, removing the roof and destroying many outbuildings, grain bins and trees near Roads C, 19. Other farms were affected with outbuilding and irrigation system damage.

3. Dec 29, 2006Winter Storm, Rawlins$165,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Snowfall totals across the county averaged 15-20 with highest totals south central. Damage costs are a preliminary combined estimate for both the Dec 20 and Dec 30 storms.

4. Apr 24, 2007Flash Flood$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Torrential rainfall brought 5-6 inches of precipitation in several hours throughout the eastern half of Rawlins county, resulting in culverts and roads washed out and bridge damage in several locations. Railroad tracks just south of Herndon on Hwy 117 suffered damage, and Ash and Beaver Creeks were reported out of their banks near Herndon.

5. Jun 14, 2014Thunderstorm Wind$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The top half of trees were blown down. Estimated a couple hundred trees a foot in diameter or larger were blown down. Time of the event estimated from radar.

6. Aug 10, 2017Thunderstorm Wind$145,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Fourteen power lines were broken off along CR 23 southeast of Atwood.

7. Sep 6, 2007Thunderstorm Wind$105,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   An intense microburst produced damage in the town of McDonald. Debris was blown mainly east to east-southeast. Four power poles were snapped resulting in power outages to McDonald and Bird City. A trailer home was blown over and destroyed. A large garage/storage building was destroyed. Numerous tree limbs down and minor roof damage occurred.

8. Apr 14, 2011Lightning$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   At 1330 CDT, lightning struck an oil tank battery on a farm northeast of Ludell, causing an explosion that blew the lid off the crude oil storage tank and damaged a second tank. Firefighters were able to control the fire in about an hour.

9. Jul 26, 2023Thunderstorm Wind$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Weather Underground mesonet KKSMCDON2 reported severe thunderstorm wind gusts of 60 to 100 mph over a duration of 16 minutes in the town of McDonald. Major tree damage was reported in McDonald by law enforcement with one foot in diameter branches down. A branch went through a house, and the rest area along Highway 36 was shut down for a time due to all the branches on the ground.

10. Jul 10, 2011Thunderstorm Wind$50,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Strong winds blew the roof off a building and lofted it over a grain bin. Grain bins also suffered roof damage.

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

118°FJul 24, 1936

All-time low

−34°F2 times, most recently Dec 23, 1989

Warmest night

78°F2 times, most recently Jun 23, 1937

Coldest day

−9°FDec 20, 1983

Wettest day

4.25 inAug 7, 1996

Snowiest day

22.0 inNov 18, 2015

Hottest year

1934mean 57.5°F

Coldest year

1993mean 46.2°F

Wettest year

198130.83 in

Driest year

20029.65 in

Snowiest season

66.2 in1948-49

Station Atwood (USC00140439), 2,893 ft elevation, 0.7 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1920 to October 27, 2026; 99.0% 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 USC00140439.
• 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.