Sheboygan County

Every recorded tornado

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

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. Aug 6, 1998Flash Flood$40.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A devastating, record flash flood hit the area from Sheboygan Falls to the city of Sheboygan during the early morning hours, with Sheboygan having the worst of the flooding. An incredible 10.75 inches of rain fell at the Sheboygan Press building, and unofficial reports indicate that around 12 inches may have fallen in parts of the city. The rain started about 0100CST, and continued until about 0800CST as a series of thunderstorms, moving slowly northeast at 10 mph, trained through the same areas. Rainfall amounts diminished going west through the county... 5 inches fell in Plymouth. A "state of emergency" was declared by the Governor. At least 3 bridges in Sheboygan were severely…

2. Aug 28, 2018Thunderstorm Wind$1.4 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A swath of widespread tree and crop damage across the southern portion of the county. Sections of trees and crops completely flattened, and some structural damage from fallen trees or due to the strong downburst winds. Various roads closed due to fallen trees. Two semi-trucks were overturned on highway 57 in Waldo. The widespread wind damage and tornadoes caused structural damage to many homes with 70 homes sustaining affected damage, 3 homes with minor damage, 2 homes with major damage, one home destroyed, and 2 businesses with minor damage.

3. Jun 1, 2004Flood, Sheboygan$1.0 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…

4. Nov 10, 1998High Wind, Sheboygan$700,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Screaming high winds raked all of southcentral and southeast Wisconsin's counties for about 17 hours, resulting in widespread damage to thousands of trees, homes, businesses, power poles, power lines, street lights, road signs, billboards, fences, flagpoles, barns, sheds, crops, boats, cars, trucks, campers, trains, airport hangers, and airplanes. Four people were killed, and 14 people were injured. Estimated monetary damages were $10.31 million to property and $1.625 million to crops. The sustained southwesterly winds of 30 to 40 mph gusted to 60 to 70 mph, with isolated locations having gusts to around 80 mph. These relentless winds eventually caused about 125,000 customers to…

5. May 31, 1998Thunderstorm Wind$642,000
   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.…

6. Jun 12, 2008Flash Flood$402,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rains resulted in flash flooding across parts of eastern Sheboygan County. Water depths on road surfaces reached 3 feet or more and there were gravel washouts. Erosion damage was noted at Kohler Andrae State Park. Some farm fields remained flooded into early July. The breakdown for residential home losses were: 30 minimally affected, and 30 with minor damage (total of $148.5 thousand for home losses). There were no business losses. Crop losses were estimated at $300 thousand. Public sector damage was about $253.9 thousand. A couple roads and bridges sustained minor damage.

7. Apr 7, 2001Thunderstorm Wind$400,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A severe thunderstorm, packing estimated winds gusts to 78 knots (90 mph), raked the northern part of Sheboygan County. A tree fell on and damaged a home near Greenbush. Near the village of Rhine Center a barn was significantly damaged, and one home sustained major damage as it's roof was ripped off. Another barn north of Plymouth was damaged. In addition, several farm sheds across the northern part of the county were also destroyed. A total of 4 agricultural buildings had minor damage and 4 had major damage. Several road signs were bent, and one car was damaged by bricks which were ripped off a home's chimney. Near Howards Grove a 30 foot long trailer was rolled over. Several…

8. Apr 13, 2006Thunderstorm Wind$400,000
   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),…

9. Jul 16, 2008Tornado$350,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado spun up on the front side of a line of thunderstorms in association with a strong microburst that rotated around on itself. It damaged an airport hangar door, destroyed 3 barns, damaged 2 other barns, lightly damaged 3 homes, took the top 1/3 of a silo down, damaged 2 other silos, and uprooted or snapped many trees. Only some minor corn crop damage was noted. It was observed by several people. This tornado started on the east side of the Sheboygan County Airport, and moved east-southeast and eventually crossed STH 32 about midway between STH 23 and CTH O. Once it crossed STH 32 it curved sharply to a south-southeast bearing and dissipated northeast of the intersection…

10. Jul 16, 2008Thunderstorm Wind$300,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A line of severe storms moved west to east across Sheboygan County and generated widespread powerful winds that gusted to an estimated 61 to 70 knots (70 to 80 mph). In addition, a tornado spun up north of Sheboygan Falls at 1437 CST - see the tornado event write-up for deatils. The ASOS unit at the Sheboygan County Airport measured a gust of 53 knots (61 mph). Thousands of trees were snapped or toppled, and many power-lines were brought down by tree debris, mostly across the northern part of the county. An 81-year-old women in Plymouth was injured when the winds pushed a door of a store into her. She broke her arm and was hospitalized. Elsewhere in Plymouth, 2 vehicles were…

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

107°F3 times, most recently Jul 19, 2005

All-time low

−29°F2 times, most recently Jan 10, 1982

Warmest night

83°FJul 14, 1995

Coldest day

−19°FJan 19, 1994

Wettest day

6.12 inSep 11, 1986

Snowiest day

18.0 inMar 19, 1971

Hottest year

1987mean 49.4°F

Coldest year

1917mean 41.2°F

Wettest year

197345.51 in

Driest year

195818.54 in

Snowiest season

105.0 in1978-79

Station Plymouth Wwtp (USC00476678), 828 ft elevation, 7.6 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1910 to October 18, 2026; 99.1% 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 USC00476678.
• 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.