Roberts County

Every recorded tornado

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

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.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Dec 25, 2016Ice Storm, Roberts$1.2 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   An intense surface low pressure area moved from northeast Colorado to South Dakota from the 24th through the 26th. This storm was unusually warm for the region for late December and produced record breaking heavy rain along with flooding in some cases. Significant icing occurred across areas at or just below the freezing point, which resulted in widespread tree and power pole and line damage to the area. Some downed branches and trees fell onto homes across the region. This storm also brought high winds along with snow and blizzard conditions to the region. This significant storm resulted in massive power outages, stranded motorists and closed roads. ||Ice accumulations were…

2. May 11, 1998Flood, Roberts$580,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rain of 2 to 4 inches with some amounts nearing 5 inches fell across a large part of the six county area mainly on the evening of the 11th. This round of heavy rain only exacerbated the already extensive flooding occurring from many years of above normal precipitation. Day county was most affected by this round of heavy rain where area lakes were already at new record levels. Blue Dog, Waubay, Rush, and Bitter Lake in Day County were just a few of the lakes hard hit again. In fact, extensive sandbagging was done around Blue Dog Lake to save many homes. Some residents of Blue Dog Lake said they had never seen the lake so high in over 35 years of living there. Many more roads…

3. Apr 7, 2001Flood, Roberts$380,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rain of 1 to 3 inches combined with snowmelt runoff brought flooding to parts of northeast South Dakota. Many roads across Clark, Grant, Hamlin, Deuel, and Roberts counties were flooded and damaged. Floodwater moving towards the town of Willow Lake overpowered culverts and flooded several homes and several streets. Highway 28 had to be cut through to allow the water to flow away from the town, averting a disaster. Highwater from the creek west of Corona in far Southern Roberts county flowed towards Corona. As a result, 3 1/2 feet of water coursed through town flooding several homes and streets and knocking out the sewer system. Also, 1000 feet of railroad track was damaged…

4. Apr 1, 2019Flood$191,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The continuation of snowmelt from a much above normal snowfall winter combined with a historic heavy snow/blizzard in mid-April resulted in widespread flooding across central and northeast South Dakota. Countless roads along with thousands of acres of cropland were flooded throughout April. Impacts include damaged roads, culverts, and bridges, and livestock, homes, and businesses were affected. Delayed planting resulted across all of the region as well. Cattle and calves were stressed by the cold and wet pattern, as the mud and cold caused some sickness with the livestock. Flooded roads made it difficult for many farmers or ranchers to get to their fields or livestock. There was a…

5. Apr 10, 2023Flood$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The snowfall during the season in northeast and central South Dakota exceeded normal levels, with many locations ranking among the top 10 for the snowiest seasons. Additionally, the late spring conditions were unusually cold, resulting in a persistent and exceptionally deep snowpack until early April. The depth of the snowpack ranged from 15 to 30 plus inches, containing approximately 4 to 8 inches of snow water equivalent. However, the weather pattern shifted to abnormally warm conditions in the middle of April. Starting from April 9th, temperatures rapidly rose into the 40s and 50s in areas with deep snowpack, and occasionally reached the 60s and 70s thereafter. The rapid…

6. Jun 11, 2008Flash Flood$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A strong inflow of moist and unstable air into and over a surface warm front resulted in training thunderstorms and very heavy rain across parts of northeast South Dakota. Rainfall amounts of 2 to 6 inches occurred across much of the area resulting in widespread flash flooding. Many roads, bridges, and cropland were damaged by the flooding. In Milbank, many basements were flooded and/or received sewer backup.

7. Jun 13, 2025Flash Flood$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Emergency management reports several county and township roads under water, in addition to the number of streets under water in the city of Sisseton. Flooding would impact numerous businesses, including Lakes Gas, where about 40 propane tanks were observed floating in flood waters. Numerous cars were also inundated by these flood waters.

8. Aug 19, 2009Flash Flood$5,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Numerous thunderstorms developed along a stationary front and trained over the same locations producing very heavy rains along with large hail. Very heavy rains of 2 to nearly 5 inches resulted in the flash flooding of numerous roads. Several of the roads were washed out. Some rainfall amounts included, 3.05 inches at Warner, 3.15 inches southwest of Bristol, 4.40 inches in Webster, and 4.50 inches east of Warner.

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

113°F2 times, most recently Jul 6, 1936

All-time low

−37°FJan 24, 1936

Warmest night

85°FJun 26, 1986

Coldest day

−20°FFeb 8, 1933

Wettest day

5.75 inAug 14, 1905

Snowiest day

24.2 inJan 4, 1997

Hottest year

1934mean 49.6°F

Coldest year

1996mean 39.9°F

Wettest year

201937.06 in

Driest year

19768.77 in

Snowiest season

87.4 in2018-19

Station Sisseton (USC00397742), 1,209 ft elevation, 5.4 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1900 to October 21, 2026; 98.1% 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 USC00397742.
• 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.