Sherman County

Every recorded tornado

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

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 20, 2009Hail$12.2 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Roof and siding damage occurred to residence as a result of large hail and strong wind gusts. Property and crop damage estimates related to this specific event are actually for all of Sherman County.

2. May 25, 2024High Wind, Sherman$7.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Widespread 60+ mph winds occurred across Sherman county from an ESE moving outflow boundary as an off duty NWS employee estimated 60-65 mph winds 10 miles to the north of Edson. Additional measured 60 mph winds were recorded 10 miles north of Goodland and at the ASOS at the Goodland Airport. A power pole was also downed in the town of Goodland; albeit the bottom of the pole was reported to be in poor shape.

3. Oct 11, 2020High Wind, Sherman$1.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A strong front moved southeast across Sherman County producing winds with gusts between 55-80 mph. In northern Sherman County, up to 70 mph wind gusts were observed for a duration of one hour and 50 minutes. These strong winds snapped an 8 inch diameter tree limb off a fruit tree and another tree to fall, which crushed a fence, in Goodland. The Goodland ASOS observed a peak gust of 66 mph during the event. The high winds also caused blowing dust to occur, which reduced visibilities between one mile to a few hundred yards.

4. Dec 29, 2006Winter Storm, Sherman$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Snowfall totals across the county averaged 15-18 northwest, 18 central, 24-28 south central and southeast. Damage costs are a preliminary combined estimate for both the Dec 20 and Dec 30 storms.

5. Jun 10, 1999Hail$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   All the windows on the west side of house broken by large hail.

6. Aug 10, 2004Hail$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Large hail and gusty winds caused an estimated $200,000 in damage to vehicles in an RV park south of Goodland. Several windows and mirrors were broken. Most roof vents, many air conditioner shrouds and refrigerator vents and some plumbing vents were destroyed. Hail penetrated vents and screens and came into some of the campers. Some awnings were shredded and one tent reportedly had holes punched through the roof.

7. Oct 10, 2009Winter Weather, Sherman$170,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Light freezing drizzle resulted in icy roads and likely played a role in numerous traffic accidents, especially on Interstate 70. Several rollovers occurred and I-70 was closed for about two hours after a semi-trailer rolled over and blocked the highway.

8. Jun 14, 2014Thunderstorm Wind$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Grain bins were leveled from wind and baseball size hail.

9. Mar 28, 2007Tornado$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado tracked from Sherman county through most of Cheyenne county with a total path length of 34 miles. The Sherman county path length was 7 miles. The tornado was on the ground for 62 minutes and produced F1-F2 damage along much of its path, especially in Cheyenne county. In Sherman county, no homes were affected. Tree and power pole damage was most noteworthy in the northern portion of the county near Roads 79 and 30 where 15 poles were snapped and extensive tree damage occurred. The tornado developed near Roads 73 and 30 and tracked straight north near Road 30 for most of its length in Sherman, and exited into Cheyenne county near Road 30.|

10. May 31, 2017Thunderstorm Wind$100,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A supercell thunderstorm moved southward across Northwest Kansas producing flash flooding, hail up to hen egg size, and damaging winds. The largest hail reported was in north of Goodland and in southeast Sherman County. The slow movement of the storm and heavy rainfall caused flash flooding across northern Sherman County including flooding the South Beaver Creek and many roads. Estimated wind gusts up to 90 MPH rolled a camper trailer, blew down a cottonwood tree, and uprooted a pine tree in Goodland.

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

111°FJul 25, 1940

All-time low

−27°FDec 22, 1989

Warmest night

80°F2 times, most recently Aug 3, 1897

Coldest day

−8°FFeb 4, 1989

Wettest day

4.15 inJun 28, 1989

Snowiest day

19.3 inOct 25, 1997

Hottest year

1934mean 56.7°F

Coldest year

1951mean 48.2°F

Wettest year

191530.89 in

Driest year

19569.19 in

Snowiest season

102.0 in1979-80

Station Goodland (USW00023065), 3,716 ft elevation, 1.8 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1895 to October 26, 2026; 99.9% 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 USW00023065.
• 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.