Wayne County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Wayne County: 4.
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

The National Weather Service sets flood stages for 1 gauge here but lists no crests for it.

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.

Mapped landslides

Mapped by NASA (1).

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. Aug 18, 2010Flash Flood$8.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Numerous county roads were closed county wide. A total of seven roads are impassable along with two roads being washed out. Public also reported extensive flooding on Flat Gap Creek Road with one house having a foot of water in the house.||Newspapers reported that flooding damaged six buildings on Houston Road, and two on Flat Gap Road. Three of these were homes which were virtually destroyed. From three to four inches of water invaded the homes, covering floors with water, debris, and mud. The rushing water was even forceful enough to completely lift two buildings of their foundations, depositing one 150 yards away, right in the middle of Indian Creek Road. The other was stopped…

2. Apr 16, 1998Tornado$4.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The tornado killed 3 people in Wayne county. 2 females, their ages 75 and 57, were killed in a modular home on Lay Creek Rd. Another female, age 69, was killed on Chalk Creek Road in a wooden frame home. The tornado left nothing but the foundation. A lumber yard was destroyed. Many trees were down in the path of the tornado. Many houses and mobile homes were destroyed. 34 homes were completely destroyed, 14 homes had major damage and 22 had minor damage. .

3. Dec 23, 2015Tornado$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   This strong, long-track EF3 tornado touched down just east of the Hardin County/Wayne County line about 2.5 miles southwest of the town of Lutts. At touchdown, hundreds of trees were snapped and uprooted before the tornado reached its peak strength about one half mile west-southwest of Lutts along Lutts Road where the tornado reached a width of 800 yards and EF3 strength. A post office and church, both brick buildings, were destroyed along with multiple homes swept from their foundations. Four people were injured here in Lutts. As the tornado continued northeast, hundreds of trees were snapped and uprooted along its path to where a concentrated area of trees were destroyed about 5…

4. Jan 24, 2002Flash Flood$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Water over roads due to stream overflow. 6 bridges and 2 roads were damaged or destroyed. 5 homes, 7 trailers and 2 businesses were damaged. One estimate of damage was about a million dollars.

5. May 2, 2010Flood$600,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Buffalo River was reported to be out of its banks and still rising. Reported as the highest height seen in 20 years. Also, numerous homes, numerous businesses, numerous non comercial buildings, along with several county, state, and federal roads across the county received damage due to the flood.

6. Mar 31, 2023Tornado$550,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This major, long track tornado began in National Weather Service Memphis's area as an EF3 tornado in Hardeman, McNairy, and Hardin counties before entering Wayne County as an EF2 tornado. The tornado entered National Weather Service Nashville's area about two miles south of Clifton and continued northeast, passing across Highway 641 near Tom Holt Road where several homes and outbuildings were heavily damaged and dozens of trees blown down. Further northeast, the tornado struck the Leatherwood community along Beech Creek Road where a few poorly constructed homes were leveled and others heavily damaged. One person was critically injured in this area and airlifted to the hospital,…

7. Mar 3, 2023High Wind, Wayne$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Several hours of severe non-thunderstorm winds resulted in numerous damage reports, including downed and uprooted trees, downed powerlines, and roof and other property damage across all of Wayne County. The emergency manager reported that a roof was blown off of a home south of Waynesboro. Damages are estimated.

8. May 30, 2004Thunderstorm Wind$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Many homes, churches, farm buildings and businesses were damaged. Trees were blown down around the county. The greatest damage extended from around May Branch Loop near the Alabama State Line...extending 1/4 mile north of Highway 227...then east to 11/2 miles to the east side of Highway 13. There was damage reports from Fairview around Highway 13 and Highway 227. 47 houses and 8 mobile homes were damaged according to a newspaper article. One mobile home was completely destroyed and 8 homes had severe damage. The mobile home that was destroyed turned over and injured a woman. She was treated for broken bones. The Fairview Church of Christ had its roof torn off the foyer. McFall's…

9. Mar 25, 2021Tornado$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A strong EF-2 tornado touched down just northeast of the city of Waynesboro between Highway 64 and Highway 99. The tornado increased in intensity rapidly as it tracked through neighborhoods along Highway 99. A few trees and outbuildings were blown down and destroyed at the beginning of the track before the tornado moved across Steele Street, Hassell Drive, High Street, and Natural Bridge Road, taking the roofs off several homes and causing one minor injury. Five high power TVA electrical steel poles were bent to the ground in this area, knocking out power to all of Wayne County. Continuing northeastward, the tornado destroyed a barn on York Road and damaged several homes on…

10. Apr 14, 2018Thunderstorm Wind$250,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A storm survey by Wayne County Emergency Management, along with numerous photos of damage, indicate a severe 1/2 mile long by 300 yard wide microburst struck the area in the 2500 block of Highway 13 southeast of Collinwood. Damage began west of Stooksberry Road where a small hay barn was destroyed and the back porch was completely blown off a home. A large 50-foot tall antenna at the home was also bent in half. Further to the east, a home at the southwest corner of Volunteer Lane at Highway 13 suffered considerable roof and exterior siding damage, and the sheet metal roof of the detached carport was blown off. The worst damage occurred on the east side of Highway 13 at Volunteer…

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

108°FJul 29, 1952

All-time low

−21°FJan 26, 1940

Warmest night

84°FAug 9, 1943

Coldest day

4°FJan 21, 1985

Wettest day

6.94 inApr 15, 1910

Snowiest day

15.5 inJan 1, 1964

Hottest year

1897mean 62.6°F

Coldest year

1976mean 54.3°F

Wettest year

201981.82 in

Driest year

194742.13 in

Snowiest season

39.9 in1959-60

Station Waynesboro (USC00409502), 750 ft elevation, 3.6 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1893 to October 17, 2026; 97.5% 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 USC00409502.
• 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.
• 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.