Bedford County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Bedford 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 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. Nov 8, 1996Tornado$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A tornado moved northeast across Bedford County causing intermittent damage along a 15 mile path initially touching down ini Wolfsburg and causing damage for about 2 miles, then touching down again northwest of New Enterprise for another 2 mile strip, and then finally destroying a barn near Bakers Summit. Along the path, the storm topped and blew over trees, damaged 9 homes and 3 barns, and completely destroyed a mobile home. A man in the mobile home sustained a broken arm when the tornado rolled the home. No deaths or other significant injuries were reported.The F1 tornado initially touched down in Wolfsburg around 8:30 a.m. uprooting or tearing the tops out of trees, sliding one…

2. Sep 9, 2011Flash Flood$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Water was reported in homes and covering parts of main street in Coledale.||A preliminary total of 20 structures reported minor damage with a total of 42 structures impacted. Damage was estimated at $197,460 for public facilities.

3. Feb 12, 2009High Wind, Bedford$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Non-thunderstorm wind gusts between 55 and 65 mph toppled numerous trees and power lines across Bedford County. The high winds caused a barn to collapse as well as moderate structural damage to several area residences.

4. Jun 17, 2025Tornado$60,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The York Road Tornado (EF1) occurred in southeastern Bedford County during the evening hours of June 17, 2025 with estimated maximum wind speeds at 95 mph, with a path width of 175 yards and a path length of 1.1 miles. The tornado began just northeast of the intersection of Robinsonville Road and Sideling Hill Creek Road, causing tree damage as it continued to parallel Sideling Hill Creek Road. Multiple softwood and hardwood trees were snapped and uprooted along both sides of upper York Road, with power line poles and wires being knocked down near a residence on upper York Road. There were also multiple uprooted softwood and hardwood trees along lower York Road. The tornado first…

5. Mar 4, 2023High Wind, Bedford$60,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Northwesterly winds occasionally gusting to near 60 mph occurred for several hours in Bedford County.

6. Jun 22, 2022Thunderstorm Wind$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A severe thunderstorm producing winds estimated near 80 mph knocked down multiple trees, toppled a metal corn crib, pulled roofs and barn doors off of outbuildings and moved some smaller outbuildings building off their foundations.

7. Jan 18, 1999Tornado$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A small tornado touched down on the north side of Bedford, taking down about a dozen trees and damaging the roofs of a couple of houses. Some of the needle and limb debris from the trees actually made a nice 10 foot circle in the snow next to one home. About 2 miles east of Bedford, a newly built oil change garage had the roof blown off and the bay doors buckled in by the winds. Eyewitnesses reported seeing a rotating column they described as a tornado that caused the damage to the garage. A gas station across the street also had slight damage to the canopy over the pumps.

8. Jun 2, 1999Thunderstorm Wind$25,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   High winds downed trees and damaged a large machinery shed on a farm near Shawnee State Park. The roof of a 36 by 88 foot metal pole building collapsed and corner posts that had been sunk five feet deep were uprooted. Other supporting poles were snapped off. A wire corncrib was lifted from its foundation and dropped in a tangled mass 70 yards away.

9. Jun 1, 2012Tornado$25,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A storm survey team from the National Weather Service concluded that a short lived tornado touched down near Alum Bank in Bedford County. The tornado touched down at the intersection of Route 96 and Gordon Hall Road and was on the ground about one and one half miles before lifting up at the intersection of Route 96 and Township Road T606. The tornado was embedded within a larger area of straight line winds. Maximum winds were estimated at 70 mph which damaged a barn and caused minor damage to three other structures. Approximately 30 trees were also knocked down from the storm which several witnesses reported as being accompanied by whirling clouds and a driving rain. There were no…

10. Jun 16, 2016Thunderstorm Wind$25,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A severe thunderstorm produced a microburst that began approximately one mile north of Bard in Bedford County. Winds appeared to funnel to the south-southwest along the valley and parallel to Route 96. Wind damage included sporadic uprooted trees and numerous trees with large limbs snapped off. One home had a portion of a metal roof ripped off, while a second home had a partial porch collapse. A small portion of a barn roof was peeled back as well.

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

103°FJul 22, 2011

All-time low

−25°FJan 19, 1994

Warmest night

81°FAug 23, 1968

Coldest day

−8°FJan 17, 1982

Wettest day

5.55 inSep 8, 2004

Snowiest day

18.1 inMar 13, 1993

Hottest year

1998mean 54.2°F

Coldest year

1978mean 47.1°F

Wettest year

197257.32 in

Driest year

200524.25 in

Snowiest season

99.9 in1993-94

Station Altoona Blair County Airport (USW00014736), 1,465 ft elevation, 19.0 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1949 to October 26, 2026; 99.8% 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 USW00014736.
• 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.