Burke County

Every recorded tornado

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

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.

Mapped landslides

Mapped by ND GS (87).

1. Landslides mapped in the USGS compilation of landslide inventories across the United States (version 3.0, 2025), rated probable or better. The compilation joins inventories made by federal and state agencies for different purposes and areas, so the number mapped in a county reflects how closely it has been surveyed as much as how often its slopes fail. An area with few records may simply not have been mapped. Deaths are as recorded in the inventories; a slide listed in two inventories is counted once.

USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0, retrieved October 27, 2026.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Apr 23, 2022Blizzard, Burke$6.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Strong winds and heavy snow combined to produce a blizzard. In addition, periods of freezing rain occurred which accreted on power lines. This, combined with strong winds, led to extensive damage to power lines, cross arms, and poles, and thus widespread power outages.

2. Jan 9, 1997Blizzard, Burke$1.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The second blizzard in less than 1 week brought North Dakota to a virtual standstill. This blizzard didn't bring as much snow as the first storm, but the winds gusted from the northwest as high at 40 mph and they lasted for 3 days. Snowfall amounts from this storm varied from 1-2 inches in the southwest to 2-4 inches in the central. But the strong winds combined with this snow as well as the snow from the blizzard a few days earlier created widespread whiteout conditions that lasted for 3 days. There were numerous communities that halted mail delivery and cancelled school. In Emmons Co. every road was blocked by drifts, some as high as 18 feet. In McLean Co. there was a drift at…

3. Jan 15, 2023Dense Fog, Burke$750,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Multiple locations lost power as a result of frost accumulating on power lines due to the multi-day dense fog event, with some locations losing power for more than a day. Multiple lines were downed as conductors broke, or snapped. Approximately 30 poles and multiple cross-arms were broken due to the additional weight of the frost on power lines. 26 additional workers were brought in by the local electrical co-op to assist with the damage.

4. Aug 12, 2010Tornado$700,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado crossed from Burke County into Ward County. Note that for roughly three miles in the vicinity of the Des Lacs River, U.S. Highway 52 runs right on the Burke and Ward County line. The tornado was right on the highway in this area. This was the location of the worst damage with this tornado. Farm property on the north side of the highway, Burke County, and on the south side of the highway, Ward County, was impacted. One fatality and one injury occurred here, in a single automobile travelling along the highway, on the county line. The vehicle came to rest in a field, nearly 200 yards off the highway, on the south side of the highway, on the east side of the river, in…

5. Jun 14, 2018Hail$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   There was extensive damage in Portal, including to a fire truck.

6. Jun 24, 2010Thunderstorm Wind$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Intense straight line thunderstorm winds resulted in a workover oil rig to blow over, causing substantial damage to the rig.

7. Apr 30, 2011Blizzard, Burke$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Up to seven inches of heavy wet snow combined with winds gusting to near 70 mph to result in widespread blizzard conditions. Travel was impossible due to many roads blocked by snow, along with icy road conditions which resulted from a period of freezing rain which preceeded the snow. Numerous trees and power lines were knocked down, leading to a prolonged period of power outages across the county. One of the adverse effects caused by the storm and disruption in power included calve losses.

8. Aug 9, 2006Lightning$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning struck two salt water tanks at oil wells. One oil well 2 miles southeast of Lignite was struck at 715 AM CST, while another 2 miles northwest of Lignite was struck at 830 AM CST. Both strikes started fires, with fire crews unable to get close to the fires due to the intense heat. Loss in production was estimated at 15K per day. The 250K damage was to property.

9. Jul 8, 2009Tornado$185,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A tornado was reported west of Portal near the Canadian border where it blew out the windows of two vehicles and blew the vehicles into the ditch. The tornado continued east-southeast towards the southern side of the town of Portal, uprooting 12 inch in diameter trees, snapping several power poles, and destroying an old oak barn. The tornado then continued east of Portal, uprooting several more large trees, downing more power lines, and destroying a granary, before dissipating. The damage corresponded to low end EF1 on the Enhanced Fujita Tornado Scale. From that it was determined that wind speeds were around 90 mph. No injuries and no deaths were reported.

10. Jun 24, 2010Hail$100,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Hail up to the size of tennis balls lasted around 30 minutes and covered the ground. The large hail was accompanied with strong winds, and resulted in broken windows, damage to vehicles, and damage to siding and shingles.

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°F2 times, most recently Aug 9, 1958

All-time low

−42°FFeb 18, 2025

Warmest night

76°FAug 2, 1989

Coldest day

−26°FFeb 3, 1989

Wettest day

4.20 inJun 11, 2021

Snowiest day

28.0 inApr 13, 2022

Hottest year

1987mean 45.0°F

Coldest year

1951mean 34.2°F

Wettest year

199825.34 in

Driest year

19346.36 in

Snowiest season

73.5 in2008-09

Station Kenmare 1 Wsw (USC00324646), 1,810 ft elevation, 21.1 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1933 to September 30, 2026; 88.4% 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 USC00324646.
• 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.
• Landslides USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0 (2025).
• 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.