Lafayette County

Every recorded tornado

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

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. Apr 13, 2006Hail$2.4 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),…

2. Apr 13, 2006Hail$2.4 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),…

3. May 15, 1998Tornado$1.7 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A supercell thunderstorm, after dropping a couple tornadoes in northeast Iowa, eventually moved northeast into Lafayette county, creating another tornado. This tornado touched down just southwest of Benton and hopped/skipped northeast for 20 miles. It caused moderate to severe damage to 40 different farms and their outbuildings, and homes. Numerous power lines were downed. Eleven people were injured: 2 children near Cuba city, 3 children southwest of Truman, and 6 adults in a vehicle on Highway 81 south of Benton. Several farm fields sustained damage.

4. Jun 16, 2014Tornado$1.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A narrow path of EF1 tornado damage. Numerous trees and power poles down. A large calf barn was nearly completely destroyed, killing two calves. Several pole barns were completely destroyed. Minor roof damage to a couple homes. A garage blown off the foundation.

5. Mar 31, 2023Tornado$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A number of farm buildings had substantial damage to them, particularly a large farm operation along County Road G where an empty grain bin was destroyed and a large shed lost it's I beam and the roof collapsed inward. A row of 13 power poles were snapped due to the wind.

6. Jun 22, 2024Tornado$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Strong tornado developed west of Argyle and tracked to the north of it, hitting multiple barns and a church along it's path.

7. May 31, 1998Thunderstorm Wind$875,000
   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.…

8. Jun 1, 2004Flood, Lafayette$500,000
   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…

9. Aug 18, 2005Thunderstorm Wind$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Widespread tree damage, trees on homes, and barns damaged, were reported within a 5 mile corridor along Highway 11.

10. Jul 24, 2009Hail$500,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A 5-mile wide hail swath damaged crops (corn, soy beans, wheat, and alfalfa), vehicles (windows and dents), and at least 25 homes (windows, siding, and roofs). This hail swath merged with a another, later, hail swath, with the merger southeast of Shullsburg. Some fields southeast of Shullsburg were totally stripped by the hail stones.||Newspaper accounts indicated that the two hail swaths resulted in damage to 20,000 acres of corn and 10,000 acres of soybeans in Lafayette County. Using an avarge of 135 bushes of corn per acre with a price of $3.45 per bushels yields a corn loss of $9.315 M. Using an average of 38 bushels of soybeans per acre, and a price of $9.25 per bushel yields…

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

99°F8 times, most recently Jul 6, 2012

All-time low

−32°FJan 31, 2019

Warmest night

79°FAug 24, 2023

Coldest day

−14°F3 times, most recently Jan 30, 2019

Wettest day

6.84 inJul 23, 2010

Snowiest day

15.0 inFeb 1, 2011

Hottest year

1998mean 51.3°F

Coldest year

1985mean 43.4°F

Wettest year

201954.81 in

Driest year

197619.12 in

Snowiest season

72.0 in2007-08

Station Stockton 3NNE (USC00118293), 970 ft elevation, 19.8 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1943 to October 27, 2026; 96.7% 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 USC00118293.
• 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.