Madison Parish

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Madison Parish: 11.
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.

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.

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.

Costliest events since 1996

1. Apr 24, 2010Tornado$35.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The start of the long-track violent tornado began around 6 miles west of Tallulah, just to the south of I-20. This tornado did not waste any time becoming strong and quite wide as it downed a few high tension truss towers on the south end of I-20. As the tornado crossed the interstate, a tractor-trailer was flipped over and thrown opposite of the initial traveling direction. The driver of the truck was injured as this occurred. The tornado then traveled quickly northeast and crossed Highway 80 and Willow Bayou Road, just to the northwest of Tallulah. Here, several homes were heavily damaged along with several vehicles and tractors damaged.||The tornado continued to the northeast…

2. Sep 3, 2008Flash Flood$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rainfall fell across all of Madison Parish as persistent rain bands continued to impact the area from weakening Hurricane Gustav. Rainfall amounts between 7 and 13 inches fell across the parish, mostly during the evening of the 2nd and early morning of the 3rd.||Numerous roads were flooded with some washed out. Agriculture was extremely hard hit as farmland was flooded and crops became water logged. Many areas saw total loss of some crops while other areas experienced very low yields. Cotton, soybeans and sweet potatoes were some of the hardest hit crops.

3. May 7, 2011Flood$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Flooding along the Mississippi River caused extensive flooding of low lying farmland around the river. All of the flood waters were within the mainline levee. A grainery was damaged due to the flood waters, and approximately 70 camps were damaged or destroyed.

4. Oct 16, 2006Flash Flood$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Very heavy rain fell across Madison Parish, especially the southern half, during the afternoon and evening of October 16th. Six to ten inches of rain fell during this time causing flash flooding across the parish. Several homes were flooded along with many roads across the parish.

5. Mar 13, 2005Hail$700,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   An intense supercell thunderstorm developed in eastern Richland parish, intensified, and moved east across the entire span of Madison parish before it exited into Warren county. This storm produced a swath of large destructive hail which ranged from quarter to ping pong ball to golf ball to baseball sized, generally along the Interstate 20 corridor. This large hail was wind blown by 65 to 75 mph winds. The largest hail observed was the size of softballs. This occurred a few miles north of the Tallulah/Vicksburg Airport. The large hail damaged many homes with broken windows and roof damage. Trees were damaged as well with limbs torn off and broken.

6. Apr 22, 1996Tornado$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This strong tornado moved across Madison Parish to the Mississippi River and continued into Warren county in Mississippi. Twenty to thirty structures were damaged or destroyed along the path of this tornado. The weaker structures such as barns and outhouses were destroyed and the houses had major damage. Numerous trees were blown down along the path. One injury occurred when a man was thrown out of his barn and landed in a field.

7. May 4, 2006Thunderstorm Wind$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The wind storm that moved out of eastern Richland Parish continued eastward into Madison Parish and caused significant damage from around Tendal to Tallulah. A few hundred trees were blown down along with dozens of power lines and power poles. In Tallulah, the hardest hit area of town was between the railroad tracks and the interstate. Many large trees were blown down, some on homes, along with more power lines.

8. Apr 27, 2011Thunderstorm Wind$350,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Roughly 20 trees were blown down across roads along with several power lines down. A couple trees were down on homes with eight other homes sustaining shingle damage.

9. Jun 16, 2023Thunderstorm Wind$350,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Widespread trees and power lines were blown down in a swath across southern portions of the parish including some which fell onto LA Highway 577 and one which fell onto a home in Delta. A peak wind gust of 60 mph was measured at the Vicksburg Tallulah Regional Airport ASOS site KTVR.

10. Jun 16, 2023Thunderstorm Wind$350,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Widespread trees and power lines were blown down in a swath across northern portions of the parish including some which fell onto US Highway 80 and some in and around Tallulah. A peak wind gust of 59 mph was measured by a private weather station at the Tallulah Airport.

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

108°F2 times, most recently Aug 31, 2000

All-time low

8°F2 times, most recently Jan 17, 2024

Warmest night

82°FAug 10, 2023

Coldest day

24°FFeb 15, 2021

Wettest day

7.01 inApr 2, 2017

Hottest year

2023mean 68.7°F

Coldest year

2014mean 63.2°F

Wettest year

200471.84 in

Driest year

200732.85 in

Station Tallulah Vicksburg Regional Airport (USW00003996), 83 ft elevation, 10.4 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1996 to October 25, 2026; 99.3% 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 USW00003996.
• 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.