Rockbridge County

Every recorded tornado

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

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.

Mapped landslides

Mapped by NASA (2).

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. Sep 6, 1996Flash Flood$2.8 million
2. Jan 18, 1996Flash Flood$1.6 million
3. Jun 29, 2012Thunderstorm Wind$750,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thousands of trees were blown down across much of the county. Some trees fell on homes, vehicles and brought down power lines. Damage values are estimated.

4. Sep 18, 2003Flood, Rockbridge$650,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Flooding along the South River as a result of Hurricane Isabel caused significant damage to property and infrastructure from the northern Rockbridge county border downstream to the South River's confluence with the Maury River. Flooding also occurred in portions of Montgomery and Amherst Counties.Overall nearly 500 families were impacted. 12 single family dwellings were destroyed or made permanently uninhabitable, and over 60 single family dwellings suffered major damage (having a foot or more of mud in them). In terms of infrastructure, Route 608 which parallels the South River was washed out or undermined in several locations along its length. Three permanent bridges over the…

5. Nov 17, 2019Winter Weather, Central Virginia Blue Ridge$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   At 4:37 AM EST this morning on I-64 at mile marker 100 (near summit of Afton Mountain/Blue Ridge; approximately 4 miles SE Waynesboro, VA), a tractor trailer lost control and overturned. A tour bus was unable to stop and impacted the truck. Several other minor accidents ensued. The culprit is likely black ice due to freezing drizzle. EM confirmed 21 transports to hospitals, with injuries ranging from minor to serious.

6. Jan 8, 1998Flash Flood$350,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rain and isolated thunderstorms during the early morning hours on the 8th produced damaging winds and flash flooding.Thunderstorm winds knocked down power lines in Galax. Flash flooding in Pulaski County resulted in the closing of route 693 near Allisonia and the flooding of Big Reed Island Creek and Little Reed Island Creek. Little Stoney and Big Stoney Creeks in Giles County, Little Reed Island Creek in Wythe County, Masons Creek 3 miles south of Bennett Springs in Roanoke County, Craig Creek in the southeastern portion of Craig County, and Crab Creek and the North Fork of the Roanoke River in Montgomery County were flooded. Two houses near Pearisburg in Giles County were…

7. Nov 19, 2003Flash Flood$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Moderate to heavy rainfall late on the 18th and on the 19th resulted in flash flooding and small stream flooding. In addition, an isolated severe thunderstorm knocked down large tree limbs in Huddleston.Runoff from heavy rainfall resulted in numerous creeks and streams out of their banks, some of which flooded roads in Grayson, Roanoke, Bath, Alleghany, Tazewell, Wythe, Carroll, and Bland Counties and in and near Sugar Grove. In Bland County, sections of some roads were washed away by the flood waters. In Pembroke, Doe Creek flooded and damaged a barber shop. Near Lexington route 11 was closed because flood waters pushed debris into the road. In Tazewell county, businesses were…

8. Jun 1, 1997Flash Flood$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rainfall during the afternoon and evening hours on the 1st resulted in flash flooding.Runoff from rainfall resulted in several mudslides in Alleghany County, flooded several roads 5 miles north-northwest of Cave Spring, flooded roads and resulted in 4 to 5 inches of water in the police station in Covington, and flooded several roads near Jordan Mines in Alleghany County.In Rockbridge County, heavy rainfall flooded several creeks, a few homes, and the Glasgow fire station, stranded people, damaged roads, flooded basements, and resulted in evacuations. A tour group at Natural Bridge had to evacuate in knee deep water.Flash flooding damaged route 620, six miles east of…

9. Jun 16, 1998Flash Flood$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms during the late afternoon and evening hours on the 16th produced flash flooding, hail up to two inches in diameter, and damaging winds. Thunderstorm winds broke off large tree limbs eight miles southwest of New Castle, knocked down several trees two miles west of Bland and two and a half miles west of Selma, toppled trees and broke off large limbs in Ararat, knocked down power poles and downed a large tree in Catawba, downed a large tree in Lexington crushing a car, and downed a large tree in Amherst.Creeks and streams two and a half northwest of Kerrs Creek flooded roads and washed some of them away.

10. Sep 6, 1996High Wind, Rockbridge$100,000

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°F2 times, most recently Jun 29, 2012

All-time low

−11°FFeb 20, 2015

Warmest night

77°F4 times, most recently Jun 23, 1996

Coldest day

11°FJan 21, 1985

Wettest day

6.05 inSep 6, 1996

Snowiest day

14.3 inJan 7, 1996

Hottest year

2020mean 59.4°F

Coldest year

1997mean 54.0°F

Wettest year

202069.73 in

Driest year

196326.56 in

Snowiest season

56.8 in1995-96

Station Lynchburg Regional Airport (USW00013733), 902 ft elevation, 34.4 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1944 to October 26, 2026; 99.9% 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 USW00013733.
• 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.