Russell County

Every recorded tornado

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

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. Jan 4, 2005Winter Storm, Russell$30.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   On January 3rd, a strong cold front surged south across Kansas & Oklahoma before stalling along/near the Red River during the afternoon of the 4th. A shallow layer of moist, sub-freezing air spread south over all but Southeast Kansas, as an 850-mb cold front, oriented in a southwest to northeast manner from the Oklahoma Panhandle to near Kansas City, teamed with an inverted 850-mb trof positioned over Western Kansas to enable much warmer, moisture-laden air to overrun the layer of sub-freezing air beneath.The result was what many consider to be the worst ice storm since 1982 to ravage all of Central & most of South-Central Kansas from the afternoon of the 4th thru the morning of…

2. Dec 10, 2007Ice Storm, Russell$9.8 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   One to two inches of ice accumulated across Russell County during the ice storm. This resulted in approximately 500 downed power poles and 2000 downed lines. Damage to the electrical infrastructure is estimated at $9.8 million. There was also widespread damage to trees but the cost of the damage is unknown.

3. Mar 16, 1998Ice Storm, Russell$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Low pressure moving slowly northeast across Oklahoma and southern Kansas induced a strong, sub-freezing northeast surface upslope that, when combined with strong 850-mb warm advection, produced widespread freezing rain across Central and parts of South-Central Kansas. The freezing rain combined with northeast winds of 20-30 mph to produce 1/2-1 inch of glazing across Central Kansas with the greater accumulation across Russell and Barton counties. Extensive damage to trees, power lines and power poles resulted including a 300-foot radio tower that toppled over in northern Russell County.

4. Apr 11, 2001High Wind, Russell$750,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Extremely intense and deepening low pressure moving from northwest Kansas across Nebraska to Iowa produced widespread damaging 43-65KT southwest winds across central and south-central Kansas from late morning thru early evening. In extreme cases, buildings were completely unroofed. Among the casualties in this category were a restaurant in Arlington (Reno County), a recycling center in Newton (Harvey County), and two homes in southwest Butler County. Other extensive roof damage included the City Hall in Benton (western Butler County), an elementary school in Cottonwood Falls (Chase County) where half of the roof was blown off, a horse barn in Eureka (Greenwood County) where nearly…

5. Jun 1, 2011Hail$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Several home roofs and vehicles were damaged countywide by golfball to baseball size hail. The exact number of roofs and vehicles damaged in unknown, so property damage amounts are rough estimates.

6. Feb 3, 2014Heavy Snow, Russell$180,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Six to eight inches of snow fell across the county, with the higher amounts across the southeast part of the county. Numerous auto slide offs were reported along Interstate 70.

7. May 5, 2002Tornado$170,000
8. Jun 1, 2014Thunderstorm Wind$144,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Twenty five to thirty power poles were knocked from the high winds. The poles were located along Highway 281.

9. May 22, 1999Thunderstorm Wind$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Home and building damage, large grain bins and an elevator leg destroyed as well as head stone damage and grave markers blown over.

10. Sep 4, 2018Flood$100,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A number of rural roads and low water crossings were flooded. Some roads reported washed out culverts.

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

114°FJun 30, 1980

All-time low

−24°FDec 22, 1989

Warmest night

82°FJul 14, 1980

Coldest day

−5°F2 times, most recently Dec 21, 1983

Wettest day

5.73 inSep 17, 1967

Snowiest day

12.0 inMar 23, 1980

Hottest year

2012mean 58.0°F

Coldest year

1951mean 51.4°F

Wettest year

195142.33 in

Driest year

195611.11 in

Station Russell Municipal Airport (USW00093997), 1,864 ft elevation, 2.5 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1949 to October 25, 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 USW00093997.
• 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.