Smith County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Smith County: 11.
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.

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), Smith$100 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. Apr 6, 2005Tornado$8.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   This strong tornado developed from a long lived supercell thunderstorm, which had a history of producing tornadoes, that moved across a large portion of Southern and Central Mississippi. The tornado touched down just N of Mount Olive, in Covington county, and stayed on the ground for 28 miles across most of Smith county, where it dissipated around the Ted community just inside Jasper county. Where the tornado first touched down it was weak, F0, and only downed a few trees. As it moved NE, into Smith county, it quickly gained strength. F1 to F2 type damaged occurred across SW Smith county where hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted and several homes and outbuildings had part…

3. Nov 24, 2004Tornado$3.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado touched down just south of Raleigh on State Highway 35 and tracked northeast to the Jasper Smith county line, 7 miles northeast of Sylvarena, where it then moved into Jasper county. Along its path it uprooted and destroyed a few thousand trees. Thirteen chicken houses were destroyed and six others were damaged. Three mobile homes and one residential home were destroyed along with five other homes sustaining major damage. Two people were injured when a mobile home was blown off its foundation and destroyed 10 miles northeast of Raleigh. At 210 AM the strong tornado moved into northwest Jasper county. The total path length of this tornado was 38 miles across Smith,…

4. Apr 6, 2025Tornado$1.2 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   This brief, but strong, EF-2 tornado began just south of County Road 540 where it did minor tree damage with a mix of hardwood and softwood trees snapped. As it tracked north, it quickly intensified as it snapped and uprooted hardwood and softwood trees in a concentrated corridor. Along County Road 540, it encountered several single family residences that sustained significant roof damage. The first such residence was a well built brick home. The windows were blown out and the roof on the back of the home was removed with damage to some of the beams. An RV was thrown through a metal outbuilding, which the owner stated the framing was carried away about a mile up the road. A car…

5. Aug 13, 2010Lightning$1.1 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A storage tank was struck by lighting and caused the tank to catch fire. The initial fire spread to two other tanks engulfing three 1000 gallons tanks into a huge fire. Each tank had a small amount of crude oil and salt water in them.

6. Dec 9, 2004Tornado$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado touched down along Highway 18, 5 miles east of Raleigh, and tracked northeast for 16 miles before moving into southwest Scott county. The most significant damaged occurred about 2 miles north of Highway 18 where six chicken houses were destroyed and another 3 were damaged. The tornado continued northeast along Boykin Church Road and into the Oakahay Creek bottom. Several hundred trees were uprooted and snapped between Highway 18 and 35. The tornado then crossed Highway 35 near the Lemon community. Here, three homes sustained minor roof damage and numerous trees and power lines were torn down. Continuing northeast, the tornado moved mainly through the Leaf River bottom…

7. Apr 22, 2005Hail$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The second of several supercell thunderstorms to effect Smith county, moved into the West-Central portion of the county from Simpson county and tracked east-southeast from near Mize to Taylorsville. This supercell produced a swath of golf ball to baseball sized hail across Southern Smith county. The very large hail damaged many cars and several homes. Windows were blown out by wind driven tennis ball to baseball sized hail. The supercell continued to move east-southeast into extreme Northeast Covington county and Northwest Jones county.

8. Aug 22, 2005Thunderstorm Wind$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   An intense microburst caused significant damage around Taylorsville. Several buildings had the roof blown off along with several others sustaining roof damage. Numerous trees and power lines were also blown down around town.

9. Nov 30, 2010Tornado$900,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado started west southwest of Raleigh along county road 516 near Highway 540. The tornado tracked northeast downing numerous trees and power lines along the path. At its widest point the tornado produced substantial damage to a brick home...removing half of the roof and severely damaging the remaining half. The walls of the home fell in the section of the house where the roof was removed. Several other houses received minor to moderate roof damage. Numerous sheds and small barns were destroyed or damaged. Tin roofing and siding was removed from a storage shed...some of which became projectiles that were forced through the walls of a wood frame house. A mobile home was…

10. Dec 16, 2019Tornado$700,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    This EF3 tornado started in far southeast Simpson County (Saratoga community) where a few trees were downed. It then moved into southwest Smith County where the damage increased. The Calvary Church was damaged along with a few other buildings, sheds and one small wooden home had the roof off. Many trees were uprooted and snapped along with power lines down. The tornado continued northeast across County roads 53 and 57. Intensity increased as tree and power line damage increased. Several homes in the area sustained some damage and 3 different groups of chicken houses were heavily damaged or destroyed. The tornado continued to intensify as it approached Highway 28 near Mize.…

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

108°F3 times, most recently Aug 15, 2007

All-time low

3°F2 times, most recently Dec 24, 1989

Warmest night

83°FJun 22, 1904

Coldest day

18°FDec 23, 1989

Wettest day

9.20 inJun 5, 1928

Snowiest day

10.0 inJan 1, 1964

Hottest year

1911mean 68.1°F

Coldest year

1940mean 62.2°F

Wettest year

194980.61 in

Driest year

195433.89 in

Snowiest season

10.0 in1963-64

Station Laurel (USC00224939), 225 ft elevation, 30.2 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1891 to October 27, 2026; 88.5% 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 USC00224939.
• 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.