Sherman County

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.

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.

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 (173), NASA (3), West Coast Slow Moving (Yuankun and others, 2021) (2).

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 21, 2000Winter Storm, North Central Oregon$170,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Light freezing rain that fell early in the morning left roads slick. This lead to at least 7 accidents over a period of 5 hours near the town of Madras. The most serious accident was a rollover on Highway 97 near High Bridge that injured several people.

2. Dec 14, 2000High Wind, North Central Oregon$120,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   High winds, with gusts up to 60 mph, created widespread damage and caused a power outage that affected the Madras Industrial Park. At the Bright Wood Corp, a metal roof blew onto another building and caused 50,000 dollars of damage. At the Madras Airport, winds damaged the doors and windows of a hanger as well as three planes parked inside. Several homes in Madras lost shingles and fence boards

3. May 19, 2006Thunderstorm Wind$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A tractor trailer rig was blown over. A tree fell through a house.

4. Dec 30, 2005Debris Flow, North Central Oregon$35,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rainfall contributed to landslide on west side of Suttle Lake in southwest Jefferson County. The slide damaged several vehicles and buildings at Camp Davidson Church Retreat.

5. Mar 13, 2001High Wind, North Central Oregon$25,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   High winds toppled an old barn in the Tygh Valley, which is located east of Mt. Hood, during the afternoon. Several RAWS sites measured wind gusts at or above 60 mph. These include Patgens (elevation 2350 ft ), which measured a gust of 60 mph at 250 pm PST, and North Pole Ridge (elevation 3480 ft ) which recorded a gust of 68 mph at 3:30 pm.

6. Dec 25, 1999Dense Fog, North Central Oregon$20,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Freezing fog in north central Oregon and elsewhere in the Columbia Basin led to several accidents in Jefferson Co, Oregon. Poor visibilities and slick roads contributed to a dozen or more accidents on Highway-97 south of Madras. Another accident just west of Sisters, Or. caused two injuries.

7. Nov 4, 2000High Wind, North Central Oregon$15,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Strong winds that continued all morning toppled a tree onto a house,which is located 4.5 miles northwest of Camp Sherman in Jefferson County.

8. Dec 8, 2004High Wind, North Central Oregon$10,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   High winds caused power outages over much of Jefferson County which resulted in the closing of Madras High School. Along the Culver highway, the roof of a shed, estimated to be 10 feet by 20 feet, blew off and struck a power pole. A couple transformers also blew out on HeHe Butte and Blue Lake Road. On Quail Road west of Madras, a roof flew off a carport and a window was blown out of a garage. A new house under construction suffered damage after the wind toppled roof trusses. A few trees were also toppled during the storm, which fell on electrical wires and a home. The property damage from this event is estimated at $10,000.

9. Feb 22, 2012High Wind, North Central Oregon$10,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A warm front and strong jet stream produced widespread high winds and damage. Peak wind speeds in miles per hour included Wasco Butte RAWS (59), 8 miles north northwest of Pine Grove (60), Wamic Mills RAWS (61), Hehe RAWS (61), North Pole Ridge RAWS (64), Colgate RAWS (83), Ajax (61), Ruggs (62), 3 miles northeast of Hermiston (60), 10 miles north northeast of Pendleton (65), Pendleton Airport (59), 5 miles east northeast of Rufus (67), 5 miles west northwest of The Dalles (70), 3 miles north of Joseph (67). Damage reports included trees down and a semi-truck blown off the road near Warm Springs, batting cages blown over in Pendleton, and shingles blown off roofs in Hermiston and…

10. Mar 16, 2005High Wind, North Central Oregon$6,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A tree snapped at its base and fell onto several parked cars at Westside Elementary School in Madras. The high winds also downed some trees onto road and utility lines in Camp Sherman. The wind gusts downed some tree limbs and caused power outages near Warm Springs. A metal storage shed was also blown over due to the winds. A greenhouse was demolished by the winds. A wind gust of 62 MPH was recorded near Opal Springs in Jefferson County at 12:45 PM PST. The property damage from this event is estimated at $6,000.

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.

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.
• 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.