Columbia County

Every recorded tornado

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

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.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Jun 25, 2006Hail$500 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A slow-moving thunderstorm moved from the Dekorra area southeast through the Poynette area to the North Leeds area, leaving in its wake a lot of crop damage due to hail. A roughly 40 to 45-minute hail shower (stones up to the size of quarters) fell in a band from about 3 miles south-southeast of Dekorra along Kent Rd. to the McKenzie Environmental Education Center just northeast of Poynette. Crop, vegetable, and fruit damage was noted, and in some cases, an entire year's crop was lost due to hail damage. Many residential homes and vehicles were damaged. Hail depth on some roads reached 8 inches and had to be plowed off the roads, especially along Kent Rd. and near the McKenzie…

2. Jun 8, 2008Flash Flood$15.7 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rains resulted in a flash flood event that washed out some raods and gravel shoulders in the western part of the county. This event was one of 3 flash flood events over parts of Columbia County on 3 separate days. Two started on June 7th, and one on June 8th. In all 3 flash flood events, home and business damage was reported, and there was crop damage. Some farm fields remained flooded into early July. It was nearly impossible to break down the damages by flash flood. Therefore, the collective damage breakdown for these events is provided in this June 8th flash flood StormData entry for Columbia County.||The breakdown for residential home losses were: over 1500 minimally…

3. Aug 3, 2004Hail$6.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Clusters of severe thunderstorms moved southeast through south-central and southeast Wisconsin, resulting in damaging straight line winds that toppled large trees, very large damaging hail, and heavy rains that led to flash flooding. Columbia County suffered the most damage thanks to hurricane-force thunderstorm winds coupled with large hail stones of 1 to 3 inches in diameter. The wind-driven hail damaged at least 100 homes and several businesses and churches in Fall River (Columbia Co.). The wind-driven hail also mowed down some corn and soybean fields between Rio and Columbus. Some of the hail stones were still unmelted the next morning. Flash flooding resulted in gravel…

4. Jun 1, 2004Flood, Columbia$3.9 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Scattered to widespread heavy rains across south-central and southeast Wisconsin during the period of June 9-12, 2004 kept many rivers and streams at or above flood stage for a good part, or most of the month. Monthly rainfall totals generally ranged from 4 to 7 inches across south-central and southeast Wisconsin, with some scattered spots in Sauk, Columbia, Dodge, Walworth, Racine, and Kenosha Counties picking up 7 to 9.5 inches, or 50 to 100% above normal. In some cases, stretches of some rivers actually went above flood stage in May, 2004. Refer to flood and flash flood events in May, 2004, for additional information. During June, 2004, the high water levels kept much of the…

5. May 31, 1998Thunderstorm Wind$3.6 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   During the early morning hours of Sunday, May 31st, southcentral and southeast Wisconsin experienced an unprecedented, widespread downburst wind event known as a "derecho." Incredibly powerful, hurricane-force straight-line winds, with peak gusts of 100 to 128 mph tore through 12 counties in this part of the state, while another 8 counties had peak gusts of 60 to 80 mph. Residents noted that the strongest winds only lasted a minute or two, but gusty winds hung on for 15 to 30 minutes. Meteorologically, a solid squall line developed in southern Minnesota and gathered strength as it raced east with a translational speed of 50 to 60 mph across southcentral and southeast Wisconsin.…

6. Aug 3, 2004Thunderstorm Wind$3.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Clusters of severe thunderstorms moved southeast through south-central and southeast Wisconsin, resulting in damaging straight line winds that toppled large trees, very large damaging hail, and heavy rains that led to flash flooding. Columbia County suffered the most damage thanks to hurricane-force thunderstorm winds coupled with large hail stones of 1 to 3 inches in diameter. The wind-driven hail damaged at least 100 homes and several businesses and churches in Fall River (Columbia Co.). The wind-driven hail also mowed down some corn and soybean fields between Rio and Columbus. Some of the hail stones were still unmelted the next morning. Flash flooding resulted in gravel…

7. Jun 7, 2008Tornado$2.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado was extremely wide since the thunderstorm cloud base was very low and the meso-cyclone that is usually aloft was well-formed all the way to the ground. Within a broad 1 to 2 mile wide area of EF0 to EF1 damage, there were several small swaths of EF2 damage due to multiple votices. The accompanying graphic shows this effect. With respect to residential homes this tornado resulted in very minor damage to 150, minor damage to 30, major damage to 10, and 2 were destroyed (total residential damage of $2 million). With respect to agricultural buildings ($500K in total damage), this tornado resulted in minor damage to 20, and major damage to 2 buildings (inlcuding silos).…

8. Sep 24, 2010Flood$1.2 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The river at the gage in Portage was in flood from the evening of September 24th through the morning of September 30th, and reached a record flood level of 20.66 feet during the evening of Monday, September 27th. The old record crest at Portage was 20.50 feet on 09/14/1938. The flood waters threatened to break through a century-old earthen dike in the Civil Township of Caledonia. The waters seeped through the dike, but the dike did not fail. The potential levee failures caused voluntary evacuations and road closures along the river from the Dells to Portage. As it turned out, dozens of homes in the Blackhawk Park area just southeast of Portage were cut off when water depths…

9. Jun 9, 2004Flash Flood$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Clusters of thunderstorms with heavy rains generated WSR-88D Doppler Radar rainfall estimates of 5 to 6 inches within 4 to 6 hours in Cambria (Columbia Co.), resulting in flash flooding. Further east, Randolph (Dodge Co.) was hit with a flash flood after torrential rainfalls (unofficial) of 8.6 inches fell during the evening hours of June 9th, followed by another 2.20 inches overnight. Interestingly, Randolph picked up 13.6 inches of rain in May, 2004, and 13 inches in June, 2004. Between May 7, 2004 and June 11, 2004, this city measured 25.60 inches of rain (normal for the entire year is bout 33 inches). Randolph sits a large bowl-shaped depression that has no outside drainage,…

10. Jul 13, 2015Thunderstorm Wind$1.0 million
    National Weather Service narrative

    Widespread tree damage in the city of Columbus with many of the roads blocked by debris. A State of Emergency was declared in the city. Numerous large tree branches and trunks snapped. Some large trees uprooted. A few trees downed on homes. Some power poles knocked down or leaning. The Red Cross opened a shelter at Columbus Middle School for those without power in order to seek relief from the heat and humidity.

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

111°FJul 14, 1936

All-time low

−37°FFeb 1, 1918

Warmest night

84°FSep 10, 1931

Coldest day

−17°FJan 19, 1994

Wettest day

7.50 inAug 28, 2020

Snowiest day

13.0 in3 times, most recently Jan 30, 1947

Hottest year

1931mean 52.9°F

Coldest year

1917mean 42.6°F

Wettest year

201854.03 in

Driest year

193919.34 in

Snowiest season

89.8 in2007-08

Station Portage Wwtp (USC00476718), 785 ft elevation, 6.0 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1896 to October 22, 2026; 99.0% 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 USC00476718.
• 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.