Lafayette County

Every recorded tornado

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

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. May 12, 2002Flash Flood$800,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Junction of highway 131 and county road FF closed due to high water.

2. May 9, 2003Tornado$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Tornado reported near Corder and tracked northeast into Saline county. destoyed a machine shed, house with grain bins damaged along with a dairy barn.

3. Mar 12, 2006Hail$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Large hail damaged many automobiles and homes.

4. Jan 30, 2002Ice Storm, Lafayette$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A long-lived major ice and snow storm blasted much of northwest, northern and central Missouri from late Tuesday, January 29th, until Thursday, January 31st. Ice accumulations of over an inch were observed from the Kansas City metropolitan area, east and north through Moberly Missouri. At one point 409,504 total customers were without electrical power in the CWA, with some residents without power up to two weeks. For the Kansas City area, the ice storm was ranked as the worst ever. Further north across northern Missouri, heavy snow fell generally along and north of a line, from St. Joseph to Trenton to Kirksville. Snow accumulations ranged from 8 to 14 inches.

5. Feb 5, 2019Winter Weather, Lafayette$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Two fatalities occurred the evening of 2/5/19 on I-70, in Lafayette County when a vehicle skidded off the road due to ice. A semi trailing the vehicular accident then impacted the vehicle, killing two of the four occupants. The MHP police report is linked here: https://www.mshp.dps.missouri.gov/HP68/AccidentDetailsAction?ACC_RPT_NUM=190068843 . Aside from those two accidents, there have been numerous injury accidents, mostly resulting in minor injuries, with a handful of moderate to serious injuries. Highway 7 just north of Pleasant Hill was closed for several hours on Tuesday evening because a MODoT salt truck among other vehicles impacted the guard rail just north of town. NWS…

6. May 21, 2000Tornado$75,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A tornado, witnessed by two citizens, destroyed several outbuildings and damaged the roof of an earth-contact home 7 miles southeast of Lexington, MO.

7. Jun 23, 1998Thunderstorm Wind$75,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Severe thunderstorm winds snapped 3 large trees at their bases and flattened a gazebo in Wellington. Also in Wellington, a porch which was still intact blew on top of the roof of a trailer. Power lines and numerous trees were blown down in Lexington. In Waverly, several trees 12 to 24 inches in diameter were blown down. Numerous power outages were reported in Odessa as a result of the thunderstorms.

8. Aug 7, 1999Flood$25,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   High water covered State Highway 23 in Concordia. Newspaper accounts indicate that gravel was washed from some streets in and near Concordia, and the blacktop was ripped off of part of another street.

9. Mar 12, 2006Hail$25,000
10. May 17, 1999Thunderstorm Wind$25,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A cold front triggered thunderstorm development over Kansas. The storms moved eastward into west-central Missouri, producing widespread damaging winds and large hail.

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

106°FAug 3, 2011

All-time low

−13°F5 times, most recently Jan 15, 2024

Warmest night

80°F2 times, most recently Jun 16, 2022

Coldest day

−4°FJan 11, 1997

Wettest day

7.42 inSep 14, 1998

Snowiest day

16.0 inFeb 2, 2011

Hottest year

2012mean 57.4°F

Coldest year

1996mean 51.1°F

Wettest year

199857.32 in

Driest year

201227.10 in

Snowiest season

30.9 in1992-93

Station Higginsville (USC00233838), 836 ft elevation, 7.3 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1991 to October 27, 2026; 99.2% 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 USC00233838.
• 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.