Emmons County

Every recorded tornado

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

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.

Mapped landslides

Mapped by ND GS (988).

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 4, 1997Blizzard, Emmons$1.8 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   64 yr. old Kintyre man died after he had a heart attack, but the rescue crews couldn't get to him in time due to the poor visibility and block roads

2. Jan 9, 1997Blizzard, Emmons$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 25, 2010Blizzard, Emmons$1.1 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Wind gusts up to near 50 mph combined with falling snow and existing loose snow cover to create widespread blizzard conditions across Emmons County. The strong winds and blizzard conditions resulted in additional downed power lines and delayed the repair of existing downed power lines. The total estimated damage from this storm (January 18th through January 25th) was over one million dollars.

4. Aug 3, 1996Tornado$750,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Tornado skipped through Linton, knocking down numerous trees, power lines and signs. Pieces of heavy machinery were moved around. There was extensive damage to many houses.

5. Mar 6, 2009Flood$748,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Beaver creek at Linton flooded due to snow melt from heavy rain, and ice jams just west of Linton. Overland flooding damaged state, county and township roads. Seventy three homes were flooded. Flooding continued into April.

6. Jun 8, 2021Flash Flood$600,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Over five inches of rain was measured over parts of west-central into northeast Emmons County, with over seven inches indicated on radar, leading to flash flooding. In Hazelton, streets and yards flooded. Near Braddock, a mail delivery vehicle was swept away in flood waters, along with another vehicle. Multiple rural roads were heavily damaged.

7. Jul 14, 2010Hail$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Damage was sustained to area homes and vehicles. Crop damage was reported to be severe across central Emmons County.

8. Jul 27, 2008Hail$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Very significant damage occurred in the city of Linton. Two automobile dealerships reported $110,000 damage total. Nearly every vehicle parked outside had some type of damage, either dents or cracked windows. Damage to structures, mainly roofs, eave troughs, and vents, was widespread throughout the city. Outside of town damage was reported to farm houses, outbuildings, and horse trailers. The hail swath was about five and a half miles long and a mile wide, right through Linton. Crop damage was minimal in comparison as the storm hailed itself out about 4 miles east of town. Little crop land was affected.

9. Sep 14, 2025Tornado$400,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Initial damage near the start of the tornado consisted of crop damage. The tornado then travelled northwest to a farmstead where it dented in the south facing side of a large, mostly empty grain bin. It then proceeded to destroy an 80 by 124 foot pole barn to the north. Inside the barn, farm equipment was damaged including a combine which had the south facing door to barn resting on it. Debris was scattered in all directions and several hundred feet away. Large pieces of board from the destroyed building were embedded in the ground including part of a rafter. There was limited tree damage to the row of trees to the north of this property. The tornado then progressed to the north…

10. Jun 2, 2011Thunderstorm Wind$350,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Strong thunderstorm winds resulted in a pole barn being destroyed and a stock trailer rolled approximately 200 feet. Also on the farmstead, a garage roof was ripped off, a well house was totaled, a grain bin blown over, and windows were blown out of vehicles.

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

118°FJul 20, 1934

All-time low

−51°FFeb 16, 1936

Warmest night

81°F3 times, most recently Jul 10, 1936

Coldest day

−25°FJan 12, 1912

Wettest day

5.10 inJun 30, 1909

Snowiest day

15.0 inFeb 26, 2009

Hottest year

1987mean 48.4°F

Coldest year

1951mean 37.8°F

Wettest year

201928.16 in

Driest year

19363.66 in

Snowiest season

89.5 in2018-19

Station Pollock (USC00396712), 1,639 ft elevation, 25.3 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1908 to October 22, 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 USC00396712.
• 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.