Claiborne County

Every recorded tornado

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

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.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Aug 29, 2005Hurricane (Typhoon), Claiborne$20.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Hurricane Katrina will likely go down as the worst and costliest natural disaster in United States history. The amount of destruction, the cost of damaged property/agriculture and the large loss of life across the affected region has been overwhelming. Catastrophic damage was widespread across a large portion of the Gulf Coast region. The devastation was not only confined to the coastal region, widespread and significant damage occurred well inland up to the Hattiesburg area and northward past Interstate 20. This hurricane has changed life as we know it across the Gulf Coast region which will take many years to return to normal.Hurricane Katrina was a very large and powerful storm…

2. Feb 11, 2010Heavy Snow, Claiborne$600,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Between 4 and 5 inches of snow fell across Claiborne County, with 4 inches reported in Port Gibson.

3. Jun 15, 2023Hail$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Hail up to the size of quarters fell on the south side of Port Gibson.

4. Apr 30, 2017Tornado$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado touched down on the southeast side of Port Gibson, near the Natchez Trace Parkway. As the tornado tracked north-northeast, it snapped hardwood trees and uprooted numerous trees. One tree fell on a house on Smith Street, which caused roof damage. The tornado then tracked toward the northeast, crossing the Natchez Trace Parkway and Highway 18. Here it continued to snap or uproot trees and also caused roof damage to a structure. An extensive area of trees were snapped or blown down just before it crossed the Natchez Trace corridor a second time. After crossing the Natchez Trace Parkway again, it continued to snap and blow down numerous trees. As the tornado tracked…

5. Feb 21, 2008Flash Flood$400,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Several roads were flooded across the south and southeast portion of the county. A portion of Highway 547 was under water just outside Port Gibson. Rainfall totals across this area ranged from 4 to 6 inches.

6. Feb 3, 2006Hail$400,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This large supercell thunderstorm moved out of West-Central Louisiana from Tensas parish and into Southwest Mississippi along the Mississippi River near the Jefferson-Claiborne county lines. This storm produced a swath of penny to golf ball sized hail across Claiborne county and into Copiah county as it tracked nearly due east. This large hail damaged automobiles and homes. The main core of the storm moved from just west of Alcorn to a few miles south of Port Gibson to Hermanville and then to Dentville. All these locations received golf ball sized hail. The storm then re-organized and produced golf ball sized hail in and around Halezhurst and blew signs and mail boxes down. The…

7. Feb 12, 2008Thunderstorm Wind$325,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Several trees were blown down around Port Gibson with a string of power lines taken down along Rodney Road from a downed tree. A couple units at the Magnolia Apartments were damaged by fallen trees. Numerous other trees were damaged outside of Port Gibson across the county. Off Greenwood Street, a shed was damaged with a portion of the tin roof thrown into some trees.

8. Aug 2, 2008Thunderstorm Wind$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Hundreds of trees and numerous power lines were blown down across the entire southern portion of Claiborne County. Many roads were blocked and the power was out for 3 to 4 days. The worst and most concentrated damaged occurred across this area as an intense line of thunderstorms moved through and produced wind gusts between 70 and 85 mph.

9. Feb 3, 2011Ice Storm, Claiborne$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A quarter inch of ice accumulated across the county with nearly all bridges iced over. Several accidents were reported.

10. Apr 6, 2018Tornado$200,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    The tornado touched down to the northwest of Buckins Creek basin and moved more east northeast, beginning on Moss Down Lane. It continued along a three to four mile portion of Highway 547. This tornado began to widen and caused widespread tree damage all along the path, especially along Highway 547. Hundreds of trees were snapped and uprooted and many power lines were broken or power poles snapped near Mt. Pleasant Road, Coleman Road and Northeast Smith Road. In addition, some homes had trees fall on them or had tin peeled back off of the roof. One 18 wheeler tractor trailer was overturned. The tornado was at its widest along Highway 547 and damaged reached high end EF1 levels. It…

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

110°FJun 23, 2025

All-time low

−8°FJan 27, 1940

Warmest night

83°FAug 4, 1918

Coldest day

14°FJan 11, 1962

Wettest day

9.85 inApr 4, 1940

Snowiest day

9.0 inJan 2, 1919

Hottest year

1998mean 69.8°F

Coldest year

1968mean 63.5°F

Wettest year

194083.44 in

Driest year

192430.42 in

Snowiest season

12.0 in1935-36

Station St. Joseph 3 N (USC00168163), 78 ft elevation, 16.6 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1894 to May 29, 2026; 85.2% 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 USC00168163.
• 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.