Cumberland County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Cumberland 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 storm within 100 miles

1. Tropical storms and hurricanes (34 kt or more, still tropical) at closest approach. Post-tropical remnants with gale-force winds are listed but not counted. Direct: track within 50 miles; near: within 100 miles. Distance is measured to the county boundary for counties and to the city centre for cities, using positions interpolated hourly between HURDAT2 fixes.

National Hurricane Center HURDAT2, 1851 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.

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.

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.

Mapped landslides

Mapped by KY GS (5).

1. Landslides mapped in the USGS compilation of landslide inventories across the United States (version 3.0, 2025), rated probable or better. The compilation joins inventories made by federal and state agencies for different purposes and areas, so the number mapped in a county reflects how closely it has been surveyed as much as how often its slopes fail. An area with few records may simply not have been mapped. Deaths are as recorded in the inventories; a slide listed in two inventories is counted once.

USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0, retrieved October 27, 2026.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Nov 9, 2000Tornado$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Roofs were ripped from several homes and storage buildings. Several barns were demolished. Part of a roof was ripped off an elementary school.

2. Jul 13, 2004Thunderstorm Wind$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Roofs were blown off buildings in the city of Burkesville. Trees were downed countywide.

3. May 2, 2010Flash Flood$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Numerous roads across the county were closed due to flash flooding. A total of five to eight inches of rain fell across Cumberland county from May 1-2.

4. Jul 13, 2015Thunderstorm Wind$75,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Cumberland County emergency manager reported numerous trees and power lines were down across the county. A NWS survey team the following day estimated that the number of trees down across the county from several hundred to well over one thousand, and caused more damage than a brief tornado that occurred in the southwest corner of the county near the Tennessee state line.

5. Jul 13, 2015Tornado$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This small tornado destoryed one outbuilding and tore roof panels off another before crossing the state line into the Pearidge area of Tennessee just west of Dale Hollow Lake.

6. May 24, 2017Hail$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A compact low pressure system moved from middle Tennessee to central Kentucky during the afternoon hours May 24. Marginal instability developed in the afternoon and evening hours ahead of this low across south central Kentucky and the Bluegrass region. Isolated strong to severe thunderstorms tracked across portions of the area where reports of large hail and damaging winds were received.

7. Feb 5, 2004Flash Flood$40,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rains of four inches or more fell over south central Kentucky, causing widespread flooding and some flash flooding. In Cumberland County, rainfall amounts were reported in the two to five inch range. Chism, Bombshell, Casey Fork, and Leatherwood Roads were impassable in spots due to high water. Several county roads were washed out. There was a foot of water in downtown Burkesville. Many Creeks in the county were out of their banks. Four inches of rain fell in Liberty in Casey County. Around three feet of water covered some roads in the town. Sections of Highway 198 in Casey and Lincoln Counties were under water. In Russell County, normally dry creek beds were overflowing…

8. Jun 21, 2019Thunderstorm Wind$30,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Multiple trees and power lines were reported down through out the county, but most were in Burkesville.

9. Jun 10, 2014Thunderstorm Wind$20,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Burkesville police reported several trees down across roadways. A couple of limbs fell on vehicles and some power lines were downed.

10. Apr 20, 2000Thunderstorm Wind$15,000

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.

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.
• 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.
• Landslides USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0 (2025).
• 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.