Leflore County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Leflore County: 16.
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.

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. Dec 23, 1998Ice Storm, Leflore$3.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A crippling ice storm struck the three state region of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi at one of the worst times, just before Christmas. Much of the fall and early winter season of late 1998 had been very mild for southerners. But on Tuesday December 22nd, a strong surge of shallow Arctic air drove southward and spelled a quick end to the unseasonable warmth and helped set the stage for one of winter's nasty tricks. A moist southwest flow above the cold air brought several upper level disturbances. This combination of cold air and moisture held together for several days and brought periods of freezing rain and sleet to the three state region, beginning tuesday night and not…

2. Feb 24, 2001Tornado$2.2 million
3. Apr 7, 2006Hail$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Significant hail damaged occurred along the path of this third supercell thunderstorm to effect Leflore County during the afternoon and evening of April 7th. This storm moved along the exact path of supercell one, but was stronger and produced much more damage. A swath of hail from quarter to golf ball size occurred across the entire width of the county and a few larger stones, to hen egg size, occurred as the storm neared the Greenwood-Leflore County Airport. In addition to the large hail, a few locations received some wind damage and one brief tornado occurred.

4. Sep 24, 2005Tornado$1.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado touched down just north-northwest of Cruger, in Holmes county, on the extreme southern end of Mosquito Lake and tracked northwest for 9 miles across southern Leflore county. As the tornado tracked northwest toward the Phillipstown Community, hundreds of trees were snapped and uprooted across Mosquito Lake. Between Phillipstown and Quito was where the most significant damage occurred. Two homes and a church were significantly damaged and hunting lodge was totally destroyed with its contents and debris scattered half a mile along the path. A steel framed cotton gin was nearly destroyed in Quito with nearly all of the roof gone and many walls taken down. A seed warehouse…

5. Jun 10, 2021Flash Flood$1.1 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Numerous roads were flooded in and north of the Greenwood area, including portions of US Highway 82 and MS Highway 7. About 50 homes were flooded in Greenwood and around the surrounding area including several along MS Highway 7 and several in the Yalobusha mobile home park. About 15 homes were flooded in Itta Bena. Stranded motorists and residents had to be rescued from flooded roads and neighborhoods.

6. Aug 29, 2005Hurricane (Typhoon), Leflore$1.0 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…

7. Feb 24, 2011Thunderstorm Wind$700,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A swath of thunderstorm wind damage occurred from Itta Bena to Greenwood. At Itta Bena, several large trees as well as power lines were blown down. A couple of homes were damage. One home sustained roof damage and the other some window damage. The roof was completely blown off of a large church and a grain bin was torn down. Trees were blown down around Greenwood and a large fence was blow down at the Industrial park.

8. Jan 1, 2010Cold/Wind Chill, Leflore$600,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   There had been reports of wells freezing up at residential homes around the county. Water breaks were reported on residential water lines in Greenwood.

9. Jul 23, 2014Flash Flood$600,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Significant flooding occurred in and around Greenwood. Roughly 80 to 90 percent of the roads in town were flooded. Several homes were flooded along with several cars stalled. One car was submerged on Main Street with the driver having to be rescued.

10. Jun 19, 2007Thunderstorm Wind$600,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    After an active severe weather day on June 18th, the atmosphere quickly recovered and was able to support additional severe weather which began in the late evening and persisted through the overnight hours. Severe weather during the overnight hours in June is quite rare but does occur on occasion. One of the overnight storms actually produced a rare June tornado! This overnight severe weather was likely a sign and just a taste of what was to come during the day on June 19th. As the overnight/early morning complex of storms shifted east, conditions were set just right for additional storms to redevelop to the west by late morning. The atmosphere recovered once more and became quite…

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°F2 times, most recently Aug 15, 2007

All-time low

−4°FFeb 3, 1951

Warmest night

81°F3 times, most recently Jul 8, 2024

Coldest day

12°FJan 10, 1962

Wettest day

8.07 inSep 20, 1958

Snowiest day

6.0 inMar 22, 1968

Hottest year

2023mean 67.8°F

Coldest year

1976mean 60.0°F

Wettest year

198979.97 in

Driest year

196532.31 in

Snowiest season

8.7 in1950-51

Station Greenwood Leflore Airport (USW00013978), 140 ft elevation, 6.7 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1948 to October 25, 2026; 98.7% 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 USW00013978.
• 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.