Stark County

Every recorded tornado

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

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 (831).

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. Jul 8, 2009Tornado$20.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Meteorologists from the National Weather Service conducted a storm damage survey in and around Dickinson on Thursday, July 9th, 2009. Meteorologists walked through the area and spoke with numerous people affected, many of whom were eye witnesses to the event.||This tornado passed through the city of Dickinson on the far south side, mainly just south of the Heart River. No witnesses spoken to actually saw the tornado. From their eye witness accounts, and from video obtained by the Dickinson Police Department, it is likely that this was a rain-wrapped tornado, and very difficult if not impossible to see. The tornado occurred before sunset, yet it was described as being as dark as…

2. Jun 19, 2005Thunderstorm Wind$3.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Large hail accompanied the severe storm causing major damage to homes, businesses, vehicles and other buildings. Wind ASOS measured.

3. Apr 4, 1997Blizzard, Stark$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Warm weather the first three days of April lead much of North Dakota to believe that spring had arrived with temperatures in the 60s and 70s. Mother Nature had other plans. A very strong area of low pressure moved out of the Colorado area into the northern plains. Warm moist air ahead of the low collided with cold air coming down from Canada. The result was the worst blizzard of the season for North Dakota, bringing much of the state to a complete halt. The precipitation began to fall during the afternoon of the 4th (Friday), as rain in the east and freezing rain or sleet in the west. By Friday evening the freezing rain and sleet had changed over to all snow in the west. By…

4. Aug 15, 1999Hail$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Damage occurred on the north side of Dickinson.

5. Jan 9, 1997Blizzard, Stark$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…

6. Aug 6, 2013Thunderstorm Wind$850,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A National Weather Service Storm Survey was done on the west side of Dickinson where wind damage occurred. The very high winds blew the roof off a storage unit and blew doors in. The debris from this building was blown to the southeast, and resulted in additional damage to several other buildings and vehicles. The damage surveyed was consistent with straight line winds and not a tornado. The damage surveyed indicated peak wind speeds of approximately 90 miles per hour.

7. Jun 24, 2009Tornado$700,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The same supercell thunderstorm that produced this EF1 tornado from 1628 MST to 1645 MST produced another tornado, an EF0, from 1703 MST to 1738 MST as it moved southeast. The first tornado, the EF1, was in Stark County, while the second, the EF0, started in Stark County and crossed into Hettinger County.||The Stark County tornado touched down about five miles south of Belfield and crossed U.S. Highway 85 as it moved southeast. It lifted nearly 12 miles south-southeast of Belfield after doing significant damage on a farm about 10 miles south-southeast of Belfield. There was no other damage reported outside of that one farm. Four structures were damaged or destroyed and several…

8. Aug 15, 2014Flood$550,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Upwards of six inches of rain in parts of Stark County led to overland flooding. There was damage to roads and crops in the northern part of the county.

9. Jun 19, 2025Hail$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Approximately 25 windows were broken on the north and east side of area homes, along with siding and roofing damage. Multiple vehicles were heavily damaged.

10. Jul 3, 2022Flash Flood$500,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Heavy rain moved through central Stark County, with over two inches of rain falling in a short period of time over the Dickinson area. Dickinson's storm water system was overwhelmed from the intense heavy rains and caused flooding to basements. Numerous streets were flooded and the underpass along Highway 22 was completely filled. Over 150 homes and businesses were affected by the flooding.

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

109°FJul 7, 1981

All-time low

−36°FFeb 18, 2025

Warmest night

76°FJun 23, 1988

Coldest day

−23°FDec 21, 1989

Wettest day

3.19 inJul 18, 2007

Snowiest day

11.2 inApr 27, 1984

Hottest year

1987mean 46.7°F

Coldest year

1950mean 37.1°F

Wettest year

198225.54 in

Driest year

20207.83 in

Snowiest season

66.2 in1981-82

Station Dickinson Theodore Roosevelt R (USW00024012), 2,583 ft elevation, 5.8 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1948 to October 26, 2026; 97.9% 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 USW00024012.
• 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.