Trempealeau County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Trempealeau 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. May 2, 2012Thunderstorm Wind$3.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms impacted the central portion of Trempealeau County near and in Blair. Nearly every structure in Blair was either damaged or destroyed by the hail or wind, with broken windows, siding or roof damage. The Blair-Taylor high and elementary schools suffered major damage to their roofs. A 25 to 30 unit mobile home park was evacuated after several mobile homes were moved off their foundations and ruptured natural gas lines. Numerous trees and power lines were blown down with power outages lasting up to 16 hours.

2. Sep 23, 2010Flood$3.3 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Flooding occurred to rivers, creeks, streams, and low-lying areas throughout the county as very heavy rains fell over saturated soils. This caused numerous county and township road closures across the county, as well as closures of main highways including U.S. Highway 53 between Ettrick and Blair, State Highway 93 between Arcadia and Independence, State Highway 121 between Independence and Whitehall, and State Highway 95 from in the city of Blair to the Jackson County line. The city park in Blair was completely underwater, while a few businesses had some flood damage. In Whitehall, a trailer park was impacted. A 60 yard stretch of railroad tracks was underwater and partially…

3. Jul 19, 2017Flash Flood$2.6 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rains, with totals of 6 to 8 inches, produced flash flooding across the southern sections of Trempealeau County. Arcadia was hit the hardest by the flash flooding. Water rescues had to be performed and all roads in and out of the city were closed due to flood waters. Oak Street was washed out and the water flooded dozens of homes and businesses. One manufacturing plant was destroyed by the flooding and a basement wall of one home collapsed. The manufacturing company lost over $1.5 million because of lost production. State Highway 95 was closed between Arcadia and the Jackson County line because of flooding along Turton and Lakes Coulee Creeks and the Trempealeau River. In…

4. Jul 20, 2017Flood$1.6 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   After the initial flash flooding across Trempealeau County, the flood waters continued to cause problems through July 20th into the 21st. Flooding along the Little Tamarack Creek caused evacuations to occur in Galesville and flooded the fire department building. Homes in Galesville and Blair were reported to have 5 to 6 feet of water in some basements. Two homes were destroyed, 12 sustained major damage and 52 suffered minor damage during the flooding.

5. Sep 23, 2010Flood$1.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Numerous roads were washed out between Blair, Whitehall, and Arcadia. A railway line was also underwater in several locations.

6. Sep 6, 2015Flash Flood$1.4 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Flood waters from Adams Creek went over State Highway 93 just north of Eleva and U.S. Highway 10 on the east side of Eleva. One business and one home suffered major damage from the flood waters. The business, a food wholesaler, suffered damage to a food storage building, had around 30% of their frozen food inventory destroyed and several diesel trucks were damaged causing an estimated $400 thousand in damages. The home suffered major damage when the basement completely filled with water and the main floor was also covered with water. Six other businesses in Eleva sustained minor water damage. The flood waters along the Buffalo River caused the Buffalo River State Trail to be shut…

7. Aug 1, 2011Lightning$1.2 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning struck a one hundred thirty-nine year old church and caused a fire. Firefighters from 3 communities battled the fire for several hours. Major damage occurred to the roof and steeple but falling debris and water damaged the exposed interior. The building was later declared a total loss with estimates of $1.2 million to replace it.

8. Aug 11, 2016Flash Flood$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Runoff from heavy rain caused several streams to go out of their banks sending water over State Highway 93 near Eleva, State Highway 121 west of Elk Creek and County Highways D, E, O, Y and OO east of Elk Creek and south of Strum. The flood waters from Elk Creek stranded residences in the village of Elk Creek. A section of road was washed out at the intersection of State Highway 93 and County Highway H south of Eleva. Numerous culverts were washed out which caused State Highway 93 to be closed near Eleva. State Highway 93 was also impassable north of Elk Creek where flooding from a branch of the Chimney Rock Creek covered the road. The Buffalo River Recreation trail was washed out…

9. Jun 27, 1998Thunderstorm Wind$950,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A line of intense thunderstorms swept in from Minnesota and caused widespread straight-line wind damage to many areas of central and western Wisconsin. This was one of the worst storms to hit the region in over 25 years. There were two main paths of concentrated damage where winds gusted between 90 and 120 mph.The northern track of damage crossed the Mississippi River near Winona, MN and hit Arcadia, Ettrick, and northwest Monroe County hardest. Several buildings, chicken storage facilities, and grain bins in Arcadia were damaged or destroyed. There were trees down in many areas along with widespread property damage and prolonged power outages. Especially hit hard were areas of…

10. Aug 5, 2019Hail$900,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Egg sized hail was reported in Osseo. The hail damaged around 300 vehicles at a dealership.

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, 1995

All-time low

−37°FJan 30, 1951

Warmest night

81°F3 times, most recently Jun 30, 2026

Coldest day

−18°FDec 23, 1983

Wettest day

5.59 inAug 7, 2021

Snowiest day

14.4 inDec 3, 1990

Hottest year

1998mean 51.9°F

Coldest year

1950mean 42.4°F

Wettest year

201644.76 in

Driest year

194816.74 in

Snowiest season

78.7 in1961-62

Station La Crosse Municipal Airport (USW00014920), 650 ft elevation, 28.7 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1938 to October 26, 2026; 100.0% 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 USW00014920.
• 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.