Oneida County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Oneida County: 5.
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.

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. Jul 18, 2001Lightning$750,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning struck a warehouse in Rhinelander causing a fire that destroyed the building. Part of the warehouse was used by a moving company and the office of a taxicab company.

2. Jul 30, 1999Thunderstorm Wind$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A mesoscale convective system moved across north-central, central and northeast Wisconsin during the evening of July 30, 1999. Thunderstorm wind gusts over 70 mph (and possibly as high as 100 mph) produced significant damage across the far north-central part of the state. The hardest hit areas were Oneida county and Vilas county, but most of the NWS Green Bay forecast area was affected.In Vilas county, an estimated 100,000 trees were downed by the storm and two people were killed by falling trees in Oneida county. The storm left 50,000 people without electrical service, damaged 150 to 200 homes and blocked all major highways and secondary roads in the northern one-third of Oneida…

3. Jul 19, 2019Tornado$400,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A tornado produced a path of scattered tree damage (DI 28, DOD 2,3) west of Pelican Lake. Peak winds were estimated around 80 mph.

4. Jul 25, 2020Lightning$306,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning struck a house on Nixon Road in Minocqua during the early morning hours, causing it to burn to the ground.

5. Jul 16, 1997Hail$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Severe thunderstorms affected much of northern, central and east-central Wisconsin during the afternoon and evening of July 16 with tornadoes, downburst winds and large hail. Millions of dollars in damage resulted from the biggest severe weather outbreak to affect the region in years.The storms began to develop early in the afternoon across north-central Wisconsin. Hail the size of baseballs fell in Minocqua (Oneida co.), damaging nearly 200 vehicles. As those storms moved southeast and weakened, a new supercell thunderstorm developed over Lincoln county. This new storm produced wind damage in Tomahawk and softball size hail northeast of Merrill. About 20 minutes later, a tornado…

6. Jul 30, 1999Thunderstorm Wind$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A mesoscale convective system moved across north-central, central and northeast Wisconsin during the evening of July 30, 1999. Thunderstorm wind gusts over 70 mph (and possibly as high as 100 mph) produced significant damage across the far north-central part of the state. The hardest hit areas were Oneida county and Vilas county, but most of the NWS Green Bay forecast area was affected.In Vilas county, an estimated 100,000 trees were downed by the storm and two people were killed by falling trees in Oneida county. The storm left 50,000 people without electrical service, damaged 150 to 200 homes and blocked all major highways and secondary roads in the northern one-third of Oneida…

7. Jul 30, 1999Thunderstorm Wind$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A mesoscale convective system moved across north-central, central and northeast Wisconsin during the evening of July 30, 1999. Thunderstorm wind gusts over 70 mph (and possibly as high as 100 mph) produced significant damage across the far north-central part of the state. The hardest hit areas were Oneida county and Vilas county, but most of the NWS Green Bay forecast area was affected.In Vilas county, an estimated 100,000 trees were downed by the storm and two people were killed by falling trees in Oneida county. The storm left 50,000 people without electrical service, damaged 150 to 200 homes and blocked all major highways and secondary roads in the northern one-third of Oneida…

8. Aug 7, 1996Thunderstorm Wind$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Winds up to 80 mph caused extensive damage in a 5 miles long by 1 mile wide area in Three Lakes. Literally thousands of trees were snapped off or uprooted; many falling on vehicles, homes and power lines. Power outages lasted as long as 36 hours for some residents. The fallen trees blocked dozens of county roads and trapped 2 people inside a cabin. The heaviest damage occurred on the peninsula of land between Laurel and Big Stone Lakes.

9. Jun 25, 2010Heavy Rain$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Rainfall runoff from the thunderstorms overwhelmed sewers in the City of Rhinelander where at least 98 homes and businesses experienced damage due to raw sewage infiltration. The hardest hit area had sewage backups in excess of 5 feet deep. The damage amount is estimated.

10. Jul 8, 2000Flash Flood$180,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A nearly stationary front across Wisconsin combined with upper air support and abundant moisture to produce a prolonged period of thunderstorms. A few of the storms contained high winds and hail but flooding from heavy rainfall caused the majority of the problems.The heaviest rainfall occurred in an area that extended from southern Vilas county southeast into Manitowoc county. Rainfall totals in this area ranged from 2 to 4 inches for the 24 hour period ending at 6:00 AM CST on the morning of the 8th. Flooding of roads and/or basements was reported in the area from Pelican Lake to Rhinelander (Oneida co.), around Antigo and Deerbrook (Langlade co.), Crandon (Forest co.), Keshena…

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 13, 1936

All-time low

−42°FFeb 3, 1996

Warmest night

76°F2 times, most recently Jul 27, 1914

Coldest day

−19°FJan 18, 1994

Wettest day

8.27 inJul 8, 2000

Snowiest day

20.0 inFeb 21, 1937

Hottest year

1998mean 46.3°F

Coldest year

2014mean 36.6°F

Wettest year

201447.26 in

Driest year

198914.11 in

Snowiest season

106.0 in1938-39

Station Rhinelander (USC00477113), 1,572 ft elevation, 8.0 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1893 to October 23, 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 USC00477113.
• 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.