Clay County

Every storm within 100 miles

1. Tropical storms and hurricanes (34 kt or more, still tropical) at closest approach. Post-tropical remnants with gale-force winds are listed but not counted. Direct: track within 50 miles; near: within 100 miles. Distance is measured to the county boundary for counties and to the city centre for cities, using positions interpolated hourly between HURDAT2 fixes.

National Hurricane Center HURDAT2, 1851 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.

Mapped landslides

Mapped by WV GS (1,876).

1. Landslides mapped in the USGS compilation of landslide inventories across the United States (version 3.0, 2025), rated probable or better. The compilation joins inventories made by federal and state agencies for different purposes and areas, so the number mapped in a county reflects how closely it has been surveyed as much as how often its slopes fail. An area with few records may simply not have been mapped. Deaths are as recorded in the inventories; a slide listed in two inventories is counted once.

USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0, retrieved October 27, 2026.

Costliest events since 1996

1. Jun 23, 2016Flood$9.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Flash flooding transitioned into river flooding along the Elk River during the late afternoon and early evening. The river flooding continued into the morning of the 24th.||Damage associated with the river flooding may have exceeded that associated with the earlier flash flooding. The Clay County 911 Center had about 2 feet of water inside. Sections of Route 4 around Procious were washed out.

2. Jun 23, 2016Flash Flood$8.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Severe flash flooding occurred in scattered locations along several streams. One stream was Porter Creek in the Bomont area. One 9 year resident in Bomont said, I really do not imagine how this would happen. It's just heartbreaking to see all the homes floating down the creek. A few of the other streams included Laurel Creek near Paxton and Big Otter near Ivydale.||This initial flash flooding along the small streams transitioned into river flooding along the Elk River.

3. Jun 29, 2012Thunderstorm Wind$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Numerous trees and large branches were blown down. Electricity was lost to nearly 2,000 customers. One home was destroyed, 3 had major damage, and 4 others had minor damage. The public infrastructure damage assessment was around $325,000.

4. Oct 29, 2012Heavy Snow, Clay$750,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A rare consolidation of a strong mid and upper level trough in the polar jet with a tropical hurricane named Sandy resulted in a historical snow storm for the month of October. ||Periods of rain fell for 2 days from the 27th into the 28th, as a cold front moved east. In response to the colder air associated with the polar jet and the strengthening mid level trough, light rain changed to the first snowflakes around 0000E to 0200E on Monday the 29th. This snow was only across the high terrain of southwest Virginia northward into the mountainous counties of central West Virginia. For example, the first flakes around Beckley were around 0100E. However, little accumulation was seen…

5. Mar 1, 1997Flash Flood$500,000
6. Jul 31, 1996Flash Flood$350,000
7. Jul 10, 2015Flash Flood$175,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Headwaters of the Big Sandy Creek flooded, including Cookman Fork along the Roane County Line. A few of the other flooded small creeks included Camp Run and Valley Fork. Route 36 or Wallback Road was closed by Valley Fork. Water rescues and evacuations occurred. Water surrounded some homes or cut off access to them. One young male adult fell into a flooded stream while rescuing his dogs. He managed to survive uninjured, after being pushed a few hundred yards downstream.

8. Aug 29, 2009Flash Flood$175,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Between 2100E on the 28th through 0300E on the 29th, a narrow southwest to northeast band of 3 to 5 inches of rain fell, mainly near and just east of the Elk River. The Department of Highways garage in Clay measured 4.1 inches. The weekend rain total from the Clay cooperative observer was 5.25 inches, with the vast majority of that rain falling during this event. ||Streams such as Beechy Creek, Middle Creek, and Buffalo Creek flooded. This included areas around Hartland, Clay, and Dundon. However, most of the damage was from small debris flows off the hillsides. These small debris flows brought rocks and mud into yards and flooded basements. ||The most significant damage occurred…

9. Nov 19, 2003Flood, Clay$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Rains of 2 to 4.2 inches fell from 2200E on the 18th through 1600E on the 19th. A strong inflow of moist air from the southeast, helped enhance these rains. The heaviest rain was over the central and southern mountains, say from the Snowshoe region on through Richwood, Beckley, Mullens, and Elkhorn. Some of the preliminary rain totals were 4.2 inches at Snowshoe, 3.9 inches at Richwood, 3.7 inches at Elkhorn, 3.5 inches at Rosedale, 3.3 inches at Frost and Mullens, 3.1 inches at Webster Springs and Glenville, 2.9 inches at Oak Hill and Beckley. Vegetation was dormant for the upcoming winter, the ground saturated, and the waterways were still flowing above normal levels from the…

10. Jun 28, 1998Flash Flood$150,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Three consecutive nights of thunderstorms left western and northern counties with wind damage and flooding. The first night was from Friday evening, the 26th, into early Saturday morning, the 27th. The convection on the second and third nights was further south than the first night, hitting the Parkersburg to Charleston corridor the hardest. Total rains were 6 to 10 inches across portions of Wood, Jackson, and northern Kanawha Counties, with 5 inches further northeast, into the Middle Island Creek basin. The heaviest rain rates were with the second night of convection from late Saturday night. the 27th, into Sunday morning, the 28th. The cloudbursts swept southeast from eastern…

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

104°F2 times, most recently Aug 16, 2007

All-time low

−16°FJan 19, 1994

Warmest night

78°FJul 17, 1988

Coldest day

4°FDec 22, 1989

Wettest day

5.60 inJul 19, 1961

Snowiest day

17.1 inMar 13, 1993

Hottest year

2024mean 59.0°F

Coldest year

1963mean 52.7°F

Wettest year

201867.05 in

Driest year

196330.25 in

Snowiest season

106.0 in1995-96

Station Charleston - Yeager Airport (USW00013866), 912 ft elevation, 27.4 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1947 to October 26, 2026; 99.9% 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 USW00013866.
• 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.
• Landslides USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0 (2025).
• 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.