Cook County

Every recorded tornado

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

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 USGS MN (449).

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. Jun 6, 2008Flash Flood$900,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Extremely heavy rains fell in a short period of time across Cook and Lake Counties between about midnight and 6 am. The majority of the rain fell close to the Lake Superior shore centered near Grand Marais. A federal disaster declaration was declared for Cook County due to the flooding. Thunderstorms tracking over the same areas for several hours led to the flash flooding, closing roads due to wash outs and debris on roadways, and leaving some homes and businesses flooded. Rainfall rates between one and two inches per hour led to the flash flooding, with rain totals between 4 and 6 inches common across southern Cook County and eastern Lake County by the time the rain ended in the…

2. Jul 19, 2013Flash Flood$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorm heavy rain resulted in flash flooding along and near the Cascade River and Highway 61 and near Cascade State Park. Water was flowing over Highway 61 and mile marker 104. Part of the highway was washed out. Other county roads in the area were damaged. There was also some cabin and road/driveway damage at Cascade Lodge that totaled about $50,000.

3. Nov 11, 2024Strong Wind, Southern Cook$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Northwest winds gusting in excess of 50 mph during the early morning hours of the 11th led to widespread tree and power line damage across southern Cook County. Some of the downed power lines were reported to be sparking and smoking. During the height of the wind storm, the local power cooperative reported that 62 percent of its customers in the area were without power. Local public utility and highway departments spent the morning removing numerous trees across the area that had fallen onto roadways. The ASOS station at the Bay of Grand Marais reported a maximum wind gust of 55 mph just before 8AM during the event.

4. Jun 20, 2012Flash Flood$61,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Three to five inches of rain in less that 24 hours lead to road damage as many small streams flooded.

5. Oct 3, 2018Strong Wind, Southern Cook$25,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Strong winds associated with a cold frontal passage lead to numerous downed trees that knocked out power to over 1,000 customers in the area. Some customers did not have power restored for over 2 days, making it the longest outage in the area in almost a decade. An RV park near the Bay of Grand Marias sustained damage with trees falling onto RVs. A peak gust of 56 mph was reported at 10:13 pm at the Grand Marais Harbor.

6. Sep 8, 2025Lightning$20,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A lightning strike near the Gunflint Trail and Soderberg Lane damaged about 2,000 feet of underground fiber optic cable causing a loss of phone and internet service to customers from that point to the end of the Gunflint Trail. Service was restored after about 14 hours.

7. Jul 19, 2013Flash Flood$10,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorm heavy rains resulted in flash flooding for parts of the Grand Marais campground due to high water from a nearby stream.

8. Jul 23, 2025Flash Flood$10,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A stretch of Forest Road 323 was washed out for a length of 20 to 30 yards where it runs adjacent to an unnamed creek just west of Mit Lake. This led to the closure of Forest Road 323 west of Forest Road 323J until repairs could be completed.

9. Aug 9, 2025Flash Flood$10,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Fast moving water was running over County Road 14 and scouring out the road.

10. Jul 23, 2025Flash Flood$10,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A culvert on Trout Lake Road (Forest Road 308) between Marsh Lake and Trout Lake was washed out leading to the closure of Forest Road 308 until repairs were able to be made.

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

97°FJul 15, 2026

All-time low

−48°FFeb 14, 1896

Warmest night

72°FAug 14, 1991

Coldest day

−16°FFeb 3, 1996

Wettest day

3.40 inJun 20, 2012

Snowiest day

16.0 inApr 1, 2009

Hottest year

1998mean 41.9°F

Coldest year

2014mean 34.5°F

Wettest year

201939.96 in

Driest year

196217.38 in

Snowiest season

119.4 in2021-22

Station Grand Portage (USC00213296), 730 ft elevation, 32.6 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1895 to October 26, 2026; 97.1% 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 USC00213296.
• 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.