Charles Mix County

Every recorded tornado

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

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.

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.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Jun 20, 2024Flood$3.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Rainfall amounts across Charles Mix County from June 20-22 generally ranged from 2 to 5 inches. This rainfall worsened some minor water issues from thunderstorms earlier in the week, especially near Choteau Creek.||Some overland flooding resulted in damage to many roads and culverts across the county. South Dakota Highway 46-50 was closed just west of Wagner in a construction zone where there was active work on replacing culverts. In addition, there were a few homes that reported water in their basements. Preliminary damage assessments estimate loss to public infrastructure to be 3 million dollars.

2. Jul 6, 1998Hail$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Large hail destroyed or damaged crops, broke windows, and damaged vehicles and many farm buildings. The hail covered the ground in places and was accompanied by strong winds and heavy rain.

3. Jun 12, 2010Flash Flood$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rainfall of up to 6 inches caused widespread flash flooding of numerous roads, residences, fields, and other low areas, causing damage to and forcing evacuation of numerous residences. Many of the flooded roads were washed out. The Yankton Sioux reservation including the town of Marty was especially hard hit, with the tribal headquarters made unusable, and 63 families displaced from their homes.Flood damage was estimated at one million dollars by the county emergency manager.

4. Nov 27, 2005Ice Storm, Charles Mix$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy freezing rain coated roads, trees, power lines, and most other objects with ice up to 3 inches thick. Travel quickly became difficult to impossible. Many roads including Interstate Highways 90 and 29 were closed for extended periods of time. Most schools and businesses were forced to close. Electric power was lost over widespread areas when many miles of power lines and thousands of poles were knocked down, with more damaged. Strong winds which accompanied the ice storm and the immediately following blizzard combined with the weight of the ice to bring down many of the power lines and poles. Tens of thousands of households and businesses lost power, with the time power was…

5. Mar 13, 2019Flood$330,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   South Dakota Highway 46 was closed both east and west of Wagner due to water flowing over the roadway. Other flooding resulted in damage to public infrastructure including county and township roads and culverts.

6. Sep 12, 2019Flood$230,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Widespread areal flooding resulted after excessive rainfall from September 10-12, which brought 6.40 inches to Platte and 6.31 inches 2 miles northeast of Academy. Flooding resulted in crop losses and damage to public infrastructure including numerous county and township roads, culverts, and some bridges. Access was cut off to several homes with water rising to 6 to 12 inches deep across parts of Lake Andes. Crop loss estimates provided by the United States Department of Agriculture.

7. Jun 2, 2008Hail$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Large hail with numerous stones to golf ball size broke windows and damaged siding and roofs. Nearly every home in the north side of Geddes sustained window damage. The hail also damaged nearby crops. The amount of crop damage was not known, but was not believed to be extensive.

8. Aug 9, 2002Thunderstorm Wind$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorm winds destroyed a metal utility shed, damaged campers, damaged several garage roofs, and caused tree damage, including a few large trees blown down.

9. Jul 21, 2001Thunderstorm Wind$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorm winds destroyed part of a large cattle shed. There was no livestock in the building at the time.

10. Sep 12, 2019Flood$100,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Platte Creek near Platte (gage site PCPS2) responded sharply to 5 to 9 inches of rainfall between September 10-12 (6.31 inches near Academy and 6.29 inches at Platte) to reach the highest crest on record at 9.15 feet above flood stage on September 12. Innumerable county and township roads were inundated, with significant flooding of South Dakota Highway 1804. Platte Creek Road was washed out at the Lake Platte spillway starting around 0800CST on September 12.

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

116°FJul 24, 1940

All-time low

−37°FJan 12, 1912

Warmest night

87°F2 times, most recently Jul 22, 1934

Coldest day

−21°FFeb 8, 1899

Wettest day

5.55 inJul 8, 1950

Snowiest day

18.5 inJan 30, 2001

Hottest year

1934mean 53.1°F

Coldest year

1996mean 43.0°F

Wettest year

201940.22 in

Driest year

197611.50 in

Snowiest season

94.7 in1983-84

Station Academy 2NE (USC00390043), 1,691 ft elevation, 33.7 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1898 to October 23, 2026; 98.7% 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 USC00390043.
• 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.