Dodge County

Every recorded tornado

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

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. Jun 23, 2004Tornado$8.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado was a continuation of the tornado that moved east-southeast from Markesan (Green Lake Co.) through the southwest corner of Fond du Lac County (civil Town of Alto). In Dodge County it maintained its F3 strength (175-200 mph) as it moved east-southeast through the city of Waupun and through rural areas of northern Dodge County to a point 2 miles southeast of Lomira, where it dissipated just west of U.S. Highway 41. Many homes and vehicles in the Dodge County portion of Waupun were damaged. Toward Lomira, several dozens of agricultural buildings and homes were damage. Numerous trees were uprooted from Waupun to near Lomira, and some crop damage was noted. Estimated…

2. Jun 7, 2008Flash Flood$6.6 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rains resulted in flash flooding across much of south-central Dodge County. Water depths on road surfaces reached 3 feet or more and there were gravel washouts. Some farm fields remained flooded into early July. The breakdown for residential home losses were: 75 with minor damage, and 7 destroyed (total of $4.065 million). The breakdown for business losses were: 12 with minor damage, 6 with major damage, and 2 destroyed (total of $1.1 million). Crop losses were estimated at 8 million. Public sector damage was about $1.4 million. There were several roads and bridges that sustained damage.

3. May 31, 1998Thunderstorm Wind$3.7 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.…

4. May 15, 2025Tornado$3.4 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Tornado began southwest of Mayville just west of Highway 28 which was also captured on video as a potential multi-vortex tornado. Some of the more intense damage occurred shortly after the tornado developed and crossed County Rd TW on into southwest Mayville in an industrial area. A farmhouse on Cty RW lost a portion of its roof and some farm sheds. The tornado then moved through the industrial area in southwest Mayville. The Mayville Engineering Company was hit on its northwest corner. The winds from the tornado breached a large garage door on the west side which then pushed the large north end wall down. The tornado then went through the Gleason Reel Corporation and destroyed…

5. Apr 13, 2006Hail$3.2 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Wild weather occurred over parts of south-central and southeast Wisconsin on April 13, 2005. Wisconsin's most-costly hailstorm pummeled a large swath from around Mineral Point (Iowa Co.) to north of Milwaukee (Milwaukee Co.), while hurricane-force thunderstorm winds raked parts of Fond du Lac and Sheboygan Counties. Here's what happened: scattered supercells developed in eastern Iowa during the late afternoon hours of April 13th and pushed east-northeastward through southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois during the evening. Three main hailstorms affected southern Wisconsin. The first hailstorm left a swath of hail and hail damage from southern Iowa County (around 1945CST),…

6. Jun 1, 2004Flood, Dodge$2.8 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…

7. May 15, 2025Tornado$2.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Extensive damage path from this tornado which started southwest of Juneau, went through the north side of downtown Juneau, to the south of Horicon, hitting the Horicon Hills Golf Club, before ending east of Horicon along Highway 33. The most intense damage was in the city of Juneau where about 10 structures hit EF-2 levels of damage. The one minor injury from this tornado occurred in downtown Juneau where a man was sleeping in his bedroom when the roof blew off and a tree fell into the house. The Clearview facility had windows blown out and one housing building lost it's roof. Another residential building, which looked like a motel, lost a long section of its roof, but was poorly…

8. Jun 9, 2004Flash Flood$2.0 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,…

9. Jun 8, 2008Flash Flood$1.9 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rains resulted in flash flooding across much of central Dodge County. Water depths on road surfaces reached 3 feet or more and there were gravel washouts. Some farm fields remained flooded into early July. The Rock and Crawfish Rivers set all-time crest records in June, 2008. The breakdown for residential home losses were: 8 with minor damage, and 3 destroyed (total of $1 million for home losses). The breakdown for business losses were: 3 with minor damage, and 5 with major damage (total of $100 thousand). Crop losses were estimated at 8 million. Public sector damage was about $184 thousand. There were a couple roads and bridges that sustained damage.

10. Jun 7, 2008Flash Flood$1.2 million
    National Weather Service narrative

    Heavy rains resulted in flash flooding over parts of southeastern Dodge County. Water depths on road surfaces reached 3 feet or more and there were gravel washouts. Some farm fields remained flooded into early July. The breakdown for residential home losses was: 10 with minor damage (total of $1 million). The breakdown for business losses was: 1 with minor damage (total of $100 thousand). Crop losses were estimated at 5 million. Public sector damage was about $100 thousand. There were a couple roads that sustained damage.

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

102°FJul 6, 2012

All-time low

−36°FJan 18, 1994

Warmest night

78°FJul 20, 2019

Coldest day

−17°FJan 18, 1994

Wettest day

5.94 inJul 21, 1999

Snowiest day

16.0 inJan 13, 1979

Hottest year

1998mean 50.1°F

Coldest year

2019mean 41.8°F

Wettest year

201947.57 in

Driest year

199222.38 in

Snowiest season

88.0 in2007-08

Station Horicon Wwtp (USC00473756), 881 ft elevation, 4.1 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1970 to October 22, 2026; 98.5% 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 USC00473756.
• 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.