Rankin County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Rankin County: 12.
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.

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.

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), Rankin$300 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. Mar 18, 2013Hail$100 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A large storm producing extremely large hail continued moving across the Jackson metro area and then across the rest of Rankin County. Hail up to 2.5 inches in diameter fell as this storm moved east causing substantial damage to vehicles and buildings. Baseball size hail fell at the MEMA State EOC causing extensive damage to state and personal vehicles. The Whitfield State Hospital had numerous windows blown out and extensive roof damage with glass ending up in patients' beds.

3. Mar 18, 2013Hail$50.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Golf ball to baseball size hail fell north of I-20 as a severe storm moved east before another stronger storm impacted areas further south and southwest a few minutes later.

4. Apr 24, 2003Tornado$50.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   This strong tornado moved directly through downtown Brandon damaging or destroying several businesses, one school and dozens of homes. In addition to structural damage, hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted as the tornado move to the NE.

5. Apr 6, 2003Flash Flood$30.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Several rounds of thunderstorms dumped 7 to 12 inches of rain over the northern half of Rankin county. This rainfall flooded numerous homes, businesses and roads.

6. Apr 28, 2014Tornado$13.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado initially developed just inside Hinds County along I-55 north of the Elton Road exit, where it caused some damage to a business and some trees. The tornado became intense just after crossing the Pearl River and moving into Rankin County, where it caused heavy damage to a number of commercial and industrial buildings in Richland and Pearl. EF-3 damage occurred in this area. One person was killed when the tornado picked up and threw her car when it crossed US Highway 49 in Richland. The tornado continued across more residential areas of Pearl, snapping and uprooting many trees and damaging some homes. Much of this damage was of an EF-1 intensity. As the tornado…

7. Apr 6, 2005Tornado$11.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado developed just SE of Florence between US Highway 49 and State Highway 469. For the first 3 miles, the tornado steadily gained strength and downed many trees and power lines. At this time the intensity was F1 and F2. As the tornado approached the community of Monterey its intensity increased. The most significant damage occurred along a 2 mile path a few miles SE and E of Monterey. Thomasville Road and E Monterey Road were the hardest hit. Here the tornado destroyed or significantly damaged nearly 3 dozen homes, a dozen mobile homes and caused 6 injuries. The tornado continued to move to the NE and moved through the Richland Creek bottom. As it continued NE toward the…

8. Mar 31, 1996Hail$10.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A large area of up to three inch hail fell over central Rankin county. The largest hail of three inches fell in the Crossgates subdivision, just east of Brandon. The majority of the hail across the area was golfball to baseball size. Many roofs of houses were damaged and thousands of automobiles were damaged. Windows of cars and houses were broken out.

9. Apr 4, 2008Thunderstorm Wind$8.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Significant and extensive straight line wind damage occurred across portions of west central and central Rankin County as a line of intense storms move through the Metro area. An extensive swath of wind damage occurred on the southern side of the Metro tornado. Wind gusts ranged between 80 and 100 mph which caused hundreds of trees to get knocked down along with numerous power lines and several billboard and road signs. Many trees fell on homes as well as vehicles. The hardest hit areas were across portions of Flowood, generally from the Dogwood Festival Mall, Old Fannin Road and along Highway 25 to Grants Ferry Road.

10. Mar 26, 2023Hail$7.0 million
    National Weather Service narrative

    A merger of two storms resulted in a hail swath extending int Rankin County from Hinds County just north of Lakeland Drive to near the intersection of S471. Hail as large as baseballs (2.75 inches) was observed within this swath.

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

107°FAug 30, 2000

All-time low

2°F2 times, most recently Jan 21, 1985

Warmest night

82°FAug 11, 2023

Coldest day

18°FDec 22, 1989

Wettest day

7.38 inApr 6, 2003

Snowiest day

6.0 inFeb 13, 1960

Hottest year

2023mean 68.8°F

Coldest year

1979mean 62.4°F

Wettest year

197992.75 in

Driest year

200734.82 in

Snowiest season

9.1 in1959-60

Station Jackson International Airport (USW00003940), 296 ft elevation, 3.8 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1963 to October 25, 2026; 99.9% 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 USW00003940.
• 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.