Linn County

Every recorded tornado

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

Volcanoes within 100 miles

1. U.S. volcanoes within 100 miles, from the USGS Volcano Hazards Program. The threat category is the USGS 2018 National Volcanic Threat Assessment, which ranks volcanoes by how hazardous their past eruptions were and how many people and how much infrastructure lie near them. It is not a forecast of eruption.

USGS Volcano Hazards Program, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Mapped landslides

Mapped by OR DOGAMI (2,267), NASA (33), USGS Conterminous (2), West Coast Slow Moving (Yuankun and others, 2021) (1).

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. Dec 7, 2015Heavy Rain$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rain resulted in flooding of small streams in the Sweet Home area. Water flooded the basements and lower floors of some homes, and a rock slide closed one lane of Highway 20.

2. Jan 19, 2012Flood$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rain caused the Santiam River at Jefferson to overflow its banks and flood low lying areas. The Santiam River crested at 18.4 feet on January 19th at 10 pm PST, 3.4 feet above flood stage.

3. Sep 19, 2017Tornado$240,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Tornado touched down along Green Mountain Road. Although tornado appeared to not be on the ground the entire path, the damage path appears to be 0.69 mile long. The tornado damaged five open barns, damaged 5 to 10 plus additional sheds or barns, brought down two power poles, and snapped six trees 4-12 inches in diameter. There were no injuries.

4. Apr 22, 1998Lightning$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning struck an A-frame house on Sodaville-Mountain Home Road in Sodaville and the house burned to the ground.

5. Sep 18, 2020Thunderstorm Wind$25,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   An eastward-moving upper level trough and associated area of surface low pressure moved across northwest Oregon and southwest Washington September 17-18, resulting in fairly widespread showers and thunderstorms beginning late in the afternoon of the 17th through most of the day on the 18th. One severe thunderstorm developed southeast of Salem, OR during the overnight hours of Sept. 17-18, and moved northward across the eastern Willamette Valley and Cascade Foothills before eventually weakening over northeast sections of the Portland metro area. This storm produced hail to near 1 inch in diameter, wind damage, and locally heavy rain with minor street flooding. Other thunderstorms…

6. Sep 28, 2007Tornado$20,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Storm survey found tornado off of Tennessee School Drive was on the ground for 5-10 minutes, with a path a little less than a mile in length, and maximum width 350 yards. Tornado tracked northwest to southeast over open fields and then in trees. Six farm buildings damaged, mostly roof damage. Estimated 90-100 mature trees damaged, with 20-30 of them snapped off low in the trunk, and 6 to 8 uprooted. One tree fell on farmhouse sustaining minor damage. Rated EF0 on enhanced Fujita scale, with gusts 75 to 85 mph.

7. Sep 18, 2020Thunderstorm Wind$10,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Multiple trees snapped about 15-20 feet above the surface. Multiple power lines down and a metal shed severely damaged.

8. Jun 4, 2009Tornado$10,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A tornado was reported by the public to local television station KVAL in Eugene. NWS Storm Survey visited the residence and confirmed: a small shed-like structure was lifted off the ground and blown 21 feet to the east - counter to the prevailing storm winds. There were also circular carvings in the grass nearby.

9. Feb 26, 2024Thunderstorm Wind$7,500
   National Weather Service narrative

   Property owner reported damage to 6 trees, along with minor damage to a door and a roof of two separate out buildings located on the property. There was a line of thunderstorms that moved across the area at that time.

10. Sep 28, 2007Hail$5,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Half-inch hail was reported at the farmhouse the tornado hit.

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

117°FJun 28, 2021

All-time low

−12°FDec 8, 1972

Warmest night

74°FJul 22, 2006

Coldest day

16°F3 times, most recently Feb 3, 1989

Wettest day

4.30 inDec 6, 1933

Snowiest day

25.0 inFeb 1, 1937

Hottest year

2015mean 56.7°F

Coldest year

1893mean 49.8°F

Wettest year

199666.96 in

Driest year

201323.59 in

Snowiest season

34.9 in1968-69

Station Salem Airport (mcnary Field) (USW00024232), 208 ft elevation, 24.2 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1893 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 USW00024232.
• 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.
• Volcanoes USGS Volcano Hazards Program, U.S. volcanoes and 2018 threat assessment.
• 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.