Lawrence County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Lawrence County: 2.
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.

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.

Mapped landslides

Mapped by KY GS (501), WV GS (25), NASA (1).

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.

Costliest events since 1996

1. Mar 2, 2012Tornado$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The long tracked tornado reentered Lawrence County south of Blaine. The track moved near the Left Fork of Little Blaine Creek then across the Levisa Fork around the Chapman vicinity. The tornado exited into Wayne County, West Virginia, just north of Clifford, near the Donithon Branch vicinity.||A double wide mobile home along Spencer Branch was lifted off its cinder block foundation and slammed into the adjacent hillside. Rescue workers extricated 3 people including an elderly couple and a 14 year old girl. The 65 year old grandmother and the 14 year old girl were killed. The 75 year old grandfather was seriously injured but survived. Two other juvenile occupants of the house…

2. Mar 1, 1997Flash Flood$1.0 million
3. Apr 3, 2015Flash Flood$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Numerous roads were blocked by flooding small streams throughout the county. Several culverts were damaged or washed out, damaging and closing roads. Blaine and Webbville Fire Departments, plus Cherryville Fire and Rescue, responded to individuals in stalled flooded vehicles. A few examples of flooding included Buck Branch, which was blocking 3 D Road and getting around a few houses. Flooding occurred along Georges Creek around Charley. ||Total 24 hour rain amounts reached 2.5 to 4 inches during this flooding.||The county damage assessment was 6 homes destroyed and 8 others with major damage. Another dozen homes and 2 businesses had minor damage. About 8 homes were classified as…

4. Jul 4, 2016Tornado$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The tornado did extensive damage to the Louisa Walmart and the Brown Food Service Warehouse. Cars and shipping containers were overturned and moved up to 30 yards in the Walmart parking lot. Structural damage to the Walmart and the Brown Food Service warehouse occurred. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted. The tornado crossed the Tug Fork into West Virginia before dissipating.||Maximum wind gusts were estimated at 120 mph. There were 5 minor injuries at the Walmart.

5. Jul 18, 2015Flash Flood$450,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Many streams in the western portion of the county flooded. Roads were closed. Roads were damaged including culverts. Some examples of the flooded streams included Deans Branch, Cains Creek, Irish Creek, Abb Creek, Cherokee Creek, and Blaine Creek. The gauge on Blaine Creek rose from 4 feet to near 16 feet. Two or 3 homes had moderate to major damage, with over a dozen with minor damage. In a lot of cases, water got under and surrounded mobile homes and into outbuildings.

6. Jul 19, 1996Flash Flood$400,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Creeks in the Webbville, Needmore, Cherokee region flooded.Some of the creeks left high water marks 8 to 12 feet abovetheir banks. Local residents said it was the worst flashflood there since the early 1950s. Caney Creek, Dry Fork,and Brushy Branch damaged 5 single family homes. About 15familes were evacuated. Cherokee Creek knocked a small wooded church off its foundation. Tobacco crops were damaged. Small bridges across the creeks were damaged ordestroyed.

7. Mar 2, 2012Tornado$350,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The long track tornado clipped extreme southwestern Lawrence County, for a few miles around Terryville, before crossing briefly into Johnson County. ||Maximum wind gusts were estimated around 140 mph from damage to mobile homes. Two residents were injured in this segment of the tornado.

8. Mar 2, 2012Hail$325,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A deepening low pressure system was lifting northeast out of central Illinois around midday on Friday, the 2nd. It reached southern Michigan by evening. By late afternoon its associated warm front had pulled north into central Ohio and into central West Virginia near Charleston. This left eastern Kentucky in the warm sector. Surface dew points increased into the upper 50s in eastern Kentucky and into the lower 60s across southern Kentucky during the late afternoon, ahead of the approaching cold front. ||Severe thunderstorms, including distinct supercells, moved into eastern Kentucky just before sunset. One of those supercells produced an unusually long lived tornado that moved…

9. Feb 15, 2003Flood, Lawrence$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Three day rain totals, beginning on the 14th, totaled 4 to 6 inches. Louisa had 5.5 inches of rain, while Ashland measured 4.9 inches. Other cooperative measurements included 4.7 inches at Charley, 4.5 inches at Grayson Lake, and 4.1 inches at the Greenup Lock and Dam. Small stream and river flooding resulted. Some roads were covered by 15 feet of water. The Little Fork flooded areas around Hitchins and Willard in Carter County. Four mobile homes and 1 single family home were destroyed in Greenup County. Three homes were affected in Lawrence County. The East Fork of the Little Sandy overflowed in Boyd County. The crest on the Little Sandy River at Grayson was 24.7 feet around…

10. Mar 20, 2002Flood, Lawrence$300,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Light rain moved into northeast Kentucky during the predawn hours of the 19th. Light to moderate rainfall fell during the 19th, as a warm front tired to lift north from the Tennessee Valley. The heaviest rains occurred from 0100 to 0800E on the 20th, ahead of the low pressure wave on the strong frontal boundary. Rains then diminished during the morning of the 20th. Rain totals from the 30 hour event were 2.5 to 4.5 inches, with roughly 60% of the total occurring in about 6 hours on the 20th. The axis of the heaviest rain was generally along the Interstate 64 corridor, from Olive Hill to Ashland. Rain totals included 4.5 inches from Ashland, 4.3 inches from Carter Caves, 4.2 inches…

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

104°FJul 7, 2012

All-time low

−21°FJan 19, 1994

Warmest night

78°F4 times, most recently Jul 27, 2023

Coldest day

3°FJan 8, 1970

Wettest day

3.89 inSep 17, 2004

Snowiest day

21.1 inMar 13, 1993

Hottest year

2024mean 60.2°F

Coldest year

1963mean 53.3°F

Wettest year

201162.44 in

Driest year

196329.99 in

Snowiest season

55.7 in1977-78

Station Huntington Tri-state Airport (USW00003860), 824 ft elevation, 20.7 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1961 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 USW00003860.
• 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.