Morton County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Morton County: 2.
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 (2,994).

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. Jun 9, 2001Hail$113 million
2. Apr 2, 2010Winter Storm, Morton$14.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Six to ten inches of heavy wet snow and sleet fell across Morton County. The combination of strong winds and the wet snow resulted in widespread damages to electrical utilities, causing massive power outages across the county. In some areas it took anywhere from several days to several weeks to restore power. Preliminary damage assessments estimated there was over fourteen million dollars in damage from this storm for Morton County.

3. Jun 2, 2011Flood$10.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   See the event episode narrative for details.

4. Jan 25, 2010Blizzard, Morton$4.7 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 Morton 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 well over four million dollars.

5. Apr 4, 1997Blizzard, Morton$2.4 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   New Salem got 16 inches of snow, Hebron got 20 inches of snow

6. Jun 25, 1999Thunderstorm Wind$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   One man killed while attempting to land small plane at the Mandan airport. Extensive damage occurred to building roofs and large trees were damage or destroyed. Widespread electrical outage.

7. Jun 15, 2009Flash Flood$1.8 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms with heavy rainfall continuously redeveloped across far eastern Morton County for several hours during the evening of the 15th. Public reports of three to four inches of rainfall were received in the city of Mandan along with street flooding. Some homes had water in their basements. A 30 foot by 40 foot section of roof collapsed at a bowling alley in Mandan. Newspaper reports were that the flat roof failed as a result of the added stress from the weight of the rain water. Two elementary schools in Mandan also had water damage. There were no injuries or deaths.

8. Jan 9, 1997Blizzard, Morton$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…

9. Jun 20, 2025Tornado$1.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   This Quasi-Linear Convective System (QLCS) tornado occurred to the north-northwest of Sweet Briar Lake. Three farmsteads were impacted. The first farmstead had minimal damage. The second farmstead had two large pole barns lose their roofs, with some collapsed walls. A half-full steel grain bin had its top completely removed, with the bin side dented in to grain level. A large Harvestore silo was significantly dented. A mile of power poles were broken between the second and third farms. The third farm had damage to the house which included much of the shingling being removed and a portion of the roof sheathing being removed, along with windows being broken. In addition, a pole barn…

10. May 16, 1996Thunderstorm Wind$1.3 million
    National Weather Service narrative

    The northern end of the Bow Echo still had severe winds associated with it...although not quite as strong as the apex of the storm. In Mandan, boats in the dry dock at Marina Bay were overturned. Several buildings in southern Mandan sustained major damage. A storage shed in southeastern Mandan was completely destroyed. There were a few campers that were blown off of their jack stands or tipped over completely. An estimated 400 homes in Mandan lost power. Wind speeds and Property damage estimated.

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

112°FJul 30, 2006

All-time low

−44°F2 times, most recently Jan 15, 2009

Warmest night

76°FAug 28, 1991

Coldest day

−26°FFeb 1, 1996

Wettest day

4.63 inAug 21, 1998

Snowiest day

17.3 inApr 14, 2013

Hottest year

2021mean 47.5°F

Coldest year

1951mean 36.9°F

Wettest year

201929.58 in

Driest year

20208.42 in

Snowiest season

101.6 in1996-97

Station Bismarck (USW00024011), 1,755 ft elevation, 11.3 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1948 to October 26, 2026; 100.0% 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 USW00024011.
• 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.