Sequoyah County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Sequoyah County: 17.
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 storm within 100 miles

1. Tropical storms and hurricanes (34 kt or more, still tropical) at closest approach. Post-tropical remnants with gale-force winds are listed but not counted. Direct: track within 50 miles; near: within 100 miles. Distance is measured to the county boundary for counties and to the city centre for cities, using positions interpolated hourly between HURDAT2 fixes.

National Hurricane Center HURDAT2, 1851 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.

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. Apr 9, 2008Thunderstorm Wind$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorm winds estimated up to 100 miles an hour and hail up to golfball size damaged 477 homes and 25 businesses along a couple of mile wide swath. Over 30 power poles were blown down leaving thousands without power.

2. Jul 3, 2004Flash Flood$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy thunderstorm rains which totalled 6.23 inches at Sallisaw and 4.25 inches near Gore caused extensive flash flooding across Sequoyah county. Several businesses suffered flood damage in Vian and a couple of home were flooded in Sallisaw. Numerous roads across the county including Highway 64 near Vian, Sallisaw and Muldrow were flooded. County roads were severely damaged in places and total damage to infrastructive was estimated at $284,000.

3. Mar 18, 2008Flash Flood$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rain flooded numerous roads across the county, several of which had portions that were washed out.

4. Sep 23, 2025Thunderstorm Wind$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Strong thunderstorm wind blew off much of the metal roof from a hospital, blew down several trees and power poles, and snapped large tree limbs.

5. Jun 21, 2000Flash Flood$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy thunderstorm rains including 3.90 inches at Marble City caused widespread flooding of rural roads around Sequoyah county. The flooding washed out a few gravel roads and damaged some bridges. A few of the major roads closed included Highway 141 near Gans and Highway 64B 2 miles north of Muldrow.

6. Jan 12, 2007Winter Storm, Sequoyah$236,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   An arctic cold front moved into northeastern Oklahoma during the late evening hours of the 11th and had finally passed through the southeastern portion of the state by the evening of the 12th. A strong upper level low pressure system moved into the southern Rockies and several disturbances translated across the Southern Plains bringing periods of heavy sleet and freezing rain to the region. The initial precipitation began around daybreak on the 12th and the final round occurred on the 14th. |A devastating swath of one to three inch ice amounts fell in an estimated 60 to 80 mile wide band from roughly Atoka to McAlester to Muskogee to Grove. An estimated 120,000 electric customers…

7. Jan 26, 2009Ice Storm, Sequoyah$218,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Upper level disturbances passing through the Southern Plains resulted in precipitation development north of a stationary arctic front located in North Texas. Freezing rain began across the area during the late morning hours of the 26th and became more widespread and heavy during the afternoon and evening hours. Freezing rain changed to sleet north of a Okemah-Wagoner-Colcord line during the morning of the 27th with heavy freezing rain continuing south of that line. The heaviest icing and most widespread power outages and tree damage occurred across portions of Cherokee, Sequoyah, Muskogee, and Adair Counties where one to one and a half inches of ice accumulated. More than 100,000…

8. Apr 9, 2008Flash Flood$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rains flooded rural roads in the southeast part of the county. Moffet and Roland cancelled school due to the flooded roads. The flooding caused damage to roads and bridges.

9. May 10, 2010Tornado$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The tornado that developed northwest of Webbers Falls in Muskogee County continued into Sequoyah County where it damaged docks on Tenkiller Lake, damaged several homes, snapped or uprooted numerous trees, and blew down power poles. The estimated peak wind in the tornado based on this damage was 110 mph.

10. May 8, 2026Hail$150,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Hail up to tennis ball size damaged homes and 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

115°FAug 3, 2011

All-time low

−10°FJan 11, 1977

Warmest night

84°F2 times, most recently Aug 3, 2011

Coldest day

8°FDec 24, 1983

Wettest day

6.81 inNov 24, 1973

Snowiest day

11.0 in2 times, most recently Jan 27, 2000

Hottest year

2012mean 66.2°F

Coldest year

1979mean 58.0°F

Wettest year

201573.93 in

Driest year

198026.46 in

Snowiest season

21.9 in1977-78

Station Fort Smith Regional Airport (USW00013964), 448 ft elevation, 22.5 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1945 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 USW00013964.
• 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.