Marquette County

Every recorded tornado

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

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.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. May 15, 2003Flood, Marquette$14.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   When the Mother's Day storm runoff from the Huron Mountains overwhelmed a dike holding back Silver Lake in northwest Marquette County, a wave of water inundated the Dead River basin all the way to Lake Superior in Marquette. A number of roads and bridges were washed out by the flood waters. Officials in the city of Marquette issued a mandatory evacuation order for about 1800 people living north of Wright Street. The Presque Isle Power Plant at the Upper Harbor in Marquette was flooded and shut down for a number of days, resulting in shortages of electricity across western and central Upper Michigan. Flood waters on the Dead River did not subside until May 20th.

2. Jun 20, 2007Hail$10.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Severe thunderstorms dropped large hail over portions of central Upper Michigan on the afternoon of the 20th. The hardest hit areas were downtown Marquette and Harvey where damage estimates from the storms were reported to be over $60,000,000.

3. Jun 20, 2007Hail$10.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Ping pong hail covering the ground two inches deep.

4. Jun 20, 2007Hail$10.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Severe thunderstorms dropped large hail over portions of central Upper Michigan on the afternoon of the 20th. The hardest hit areas were downtown Marquette and Harvey where damage estimates from the storms were reported to be over $60,000,000.

5. Jun 20, 2007Hail$8.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Shredded leaves clogged storm drains resulting in street flooding from melting hail.

6. Apr 12, 2023Flood$7.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Fairly widespread flooding was observed across a large portion of Marquette County with flooding observed along the Chocolay, Escanaba and Michigamme Rivers. Some of the most severe and longest-duration flooding was along the Michigamme River near Republic and Witch Lake. On April 24th Marquette County officials described extensive and significant flooding damage to 25+ roads and 7+ crossings with damage estimates exceeding $7 million. Marquette County was added to the state of emergency declaration on 4/21 by Governor Whitmer to aid in flood recovery efforts.

7. Jun 20, 2007Hail$6.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Severe thunderstorms dropped large hail over portions of central Upper Michigan on the afternoon of the 20th. The hardest hit areas were downtown Marquette and Harvey where damage estimates from the storms were reported to be over $60,000,000.

8. May 20, 2009Wildfire, Marquette$4.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Black River Falls Wildfire started southwest of Ishpeming in Marquette County on the afternoon of the 20th. The wildfire was ignited when a jack pine tree branch split off the main stem from strong southerly winds and fell across a power line. The wildfire burned 811 acres, destroyed 21 residences and 12 other structures. The fire fighting efforts were led by the Michigan DNR. The wildfire was contained on the 22nd and mop up efforts continued into the 26th. The cost for personnel and equipment to fight the wildfire was estimated at near $100,000. The total damage estimate is unknown at this time but presumed to be in the millions of dollars.

9. Jun 20, 2007Hail$4.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Severe thunderstorms dropped large hail over portions of central Upper Michigan on the afternoon of the 20th. The hardest hit areas were downtown Marquette and Harvey where damage estimates from the storms were reported to be over $60,000,000.

10. Jun 20, 2007Hail$4.0 million
    National Weather Service narrative

    Severe thunderstorms dropped large hail over portions of central Upper Michigan on the afternoon of the 20th. The hardest hit areas were downtown Marquette and Harvey where damage estimates from the storms were reported to be over $60,000,000.

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.

All-time high

104°FJul 19, 1977

All-time low

−33°FFeb 8, 1861

Warmest night

79°FAug 24, 1948

Coldest day

−15°FFeb 9, 1888

Wettest day

5.12 inMay 12, 2006

Snowiest day

18.0 in2 times, most recently Feb 23, 1861

Hottest year

1998mean 47.6°F

Coldest year

1883mean 37.9°F

Wettest year

195141.59 in

Driest year

200020.84 in

Snowiest season

188.1 in1959-60

Station Marquette (USW00014838), 665 ft elevation, 6.8 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1860 to October 28, 2026; 97.4% 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 USW00014838.
• 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.