Spink County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Spink 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. Apr 1, 2019Flood$1.3 million
   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…

2. May 11, 1998Flood, Spink$310,000
   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 1, 2009Flood$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   March flooding of the James River continued from Columbia to Ashton throughout April. The James River went above flood stage at Redfield on April 18th and continued through the end of the month. The James River at Redfield rose to 25.7 feet on April 30th, almost 6 feet above the flood stage of 20 feet. The James River from Columbia to Ashton was from 6 to as much as 10 feet above flood stage throughout the month. ||The James River continued to cause major issues throughout Brown and Spink counties for roads, fields, cropland, along with some homes. State Highway 34 was closed for about two weeks at the state border near Hecla. The flooding washed away the highway base. The James…

4. May 13, 2009Strong Wind, Spink$40,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Strong northwest winds of 30 to 40 mph with higher gusts knocked a semi-truck and trailer off of Highway 281 south of Redfield. The semi-truck collided into a pickup traveling north. The driver of the pickup had serious, but non-life threatening injuries. The semi driver recieved only minor injuries.

5. Apr 6, 2006Flash Flood$15,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rains of 3 to 6 inches fell from around midday through the afternoon hours causing flash flooding across parts of Spink, Clark, and Day counties. Many county and township roads were flooded with several of the roads damaged or completely washed out. Areas around Frankfort, Doland, Turton, Conde, Crandall, Raymond, Butler, and Bristol were most affected. Many roads were closed. Also, several basements were flooded and sewers were backed up.

6. Sep 18, 2013Flash Flood$5,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A section of a gravel driveway was washed out requiring some repairs.

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

112°FJul 10, 1966

All-time low

−43°F2 times, most recently Jan 12, 1912

Warmest night

82°FJul 11, 1936

Coldest day

−21°FJan 14, 1888

Wettest day

5.31 inJun 18, 1967

Snowiest day

19.0 inMar 14, 2002

Hottest year

1931mean 50.1°F

Coldest year

1883mean 41.4°F

Wettest year

201937.30 in

Driest year

19529.72 in

Snowiest season

89.6 in2000-01

Station Huron Regional Airport (USW00014936), 1,282 ft elevation, 37.5 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1881 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 USW00014936.
• 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.