Granite County

Every recorded tornado

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

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 29, 2004Heavy Snow, Butte / Pintlar Region$85,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy snow event across southwest Montana brought snow amounts ranging from 5 to 8 inches in the valleys to a foot over higher mountains. The city of Anaconda received a record breaking 5.9 inches for December 30th. The previous record was 5 inches set in 1977. The Montana Highway Patrol reported several severe accidents while at least 20 cars slid off roads from snow packed and icy roads. A truck driver totaled his $85,000 truck when he struck a vehicle in front of him who lost control and slowed down. His truck skidded sideways and rolled into a ditch.

2. Jun 13, 2017Flood$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Granite county saw widespread impacts from the heavy rain. Philipsburg, MT received 3.28 inches of rain in 24 hours from noon 6/12 through noon 6/13. A public report from Georgetown Lake, MT had a measured 3.7 inches of rain over the 2-day event. Fred Burr Creek was particularly hard hit, with private driveway bridges being washed out, thus stranding a couple residents. Many of these same residents had basement flooding as well. USGS stream gauges on Boulder Creek near Maxville recorded 1410 cfs; 1000 cfs begins to cause road flooding issues, and this was much above this impact level. Rock Creek and Flint Creek both saw extremely rapid and high flows, with water spilling into…

3. Dec 17, 2025High Wind, Bitterroot / Sapphire Mountains$15,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Extreme winds battered the higher elevations, with a weather station atop Mount Sentinel (5,026 feet) serving as a proxy for the surrounding peaks. This station recorded a sustained wind of 76 mph and a staggering peak gust of 99 mph from the west-northwest at 0900MST, with gusts consistently exceeding 70 to 90 mph throughout the morning and into the afternoon. Along Highway 12 between Lolo and Lolo Pass, the Montana Department of Transportation warned motorists to limit travel as strong winds blew trees, debris, and rocks onto the roadway around 0820MST west of milepost 32.6. Widespread power outages were reported throughout the area, including significant disruptions up Petty…

4. Jul 4, 2008Hail$12,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   State employee 14 miles south of Philipsburg near Georgetown Lake reported 1.75 inch hail.

5. Nov 15, 2021High Wind, Bitterroot / Sapphire Mountains$7,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   There was a report of roof damage and blown over trees near Skalkaho Pass.

6. Aug 9, 2013Flash Flood$5,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A slow moving wet thunderstorm dumped at least 1 of rainfall in one hour just southeast of Drummond. A rancher experienced a 5 foot wall of fast moving water that moved down their driveway. The fast flowing water laden with pea-sized hail and mud severely damaged grain & alfalfa crops, irrigation sprinklers and a fence. They said it was the worst flooding in at least 20 years.

7. Aug 15, 2024Strong Wind, Bitterroot / Sapphire Mountains$4,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Sheriff's Office reported downed powerlines over the Eastside Highway south of Stevensville. There were 113 people reported without power. Strong winds knocked over a camper and truck camper 8 miles east of Florence.

8. Jan 10, 2012Winter Weather, Bitterroot / Sapphire Mountains$3,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   An accident involving three semi trucks occurred on Highway 12, 13 miles west of Lolo, after light freezing rain fell in the area. This caused a short closure of Highway 12.

9. Jun 24, 2016Strong Wind, Bitterroot / Sapphire Mountains$3,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Deer Mountain RAWS reported a max wind gust of 50 mph between 12:06pm MST and 1:06 MST. Other locations above the valley floor gusted in the 40 to 50 mph range, including the Little Rock Creek RAWS with 45 mph gusts.

10. Jan 13, 2021High Wind, Bitterroot / Sapphire Mountains$2,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Volunteer groomers for the Chief Joseph cross country trails had to clear an estimated 100 downed trees. They remarked that there was a tree down almost every 100 yards. The U.S. Forest Service reported that a couple of their radio repeaters were blown down in the Bitterroot Mountains. The Little Rock Creek RAWS located at 5500 feet, just south of Lake Como, reported a peak wind of 58 mph. A wind sensor on top of Mount Sentinel (north end of the Sapphire Mountains) recorded a peak wind speed of 125 mph at 10:45 am MST.

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

98°F2 times, most recently Jul 13, 2002

All-time low

−41°FJan 13, 2024

Warmest night

66°FJul 17, 1996

Coldest day

−23°FFeb 2, 1989

Wettest day

3.45 inJun 13, 2017

Snowiest day

20.0 inApr 26, 1975

Hottest year

1988mean 45.2°F

Coldest year

1975mean 38.8°F

Wettest year

197524.30 in

Driest year

19798.41 in

Snowiest season

88.7 in1966-67

Station Philipsburg Rs (USC00246472), 5,270 ft elevation, 9.0 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1955 to October 26, 2026; 87.1% 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 USC00246472.
• 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.