Platte County

Every recorded tornado

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

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.

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.

Every earthquake of magnitude 4 or more within 50 miles

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 WY WSGS (123).

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.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Sep 14, 1996Flash Flood$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rainfall from thundersorms, washed out Iron Mountain Road, which is southwest of Chugwater. Two feet of water was flowingover the road.

2. Jul 2, 2009Hail$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Hail from 1.75 to 2 inches in diameter reported.

3. May 22, 2002High Wind, Platte$75,000
4. Nov 10, 2003High Wind, Platte$50,000
5. Mar 12, 2026High Wind, Central Laramie Range And Southwest Platte County$40,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Frequent very strong winds were observed at the WYDOT site at Bordeaux. Highest gust observed at 126 PM MST on March 12th. Several webcam images showed flipped semi trucks on Interstate 25.

6. Mar 6, 1998Winter Storm, Platte$35,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A winter storm affected parts of southeast Wyoming, with a total of 11 inches of snowfall reported in Rawlins, 10 inches at Lusk and Hanna, and 8 inches of snowfall was reported across Platte county. The Wyoming Highway Patrol received 19 reports of automobile accidents involving injuries due to snow packed roads, and another 90 accidents without injuries between midnight and 715 pm.

7. Feb 3, 1998Dense Fog, Platte$32,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Dense fog occurred across all of Platte and Laramie Counties, reducing visibilities to less than a quarter of a mile. The Highway Patrol reported 16 accidents over the three-day period, with 5 injuries in Laramie and Albany counties. A man was struck by a car on Interstate 25, two-miles south of Cheyenne, at 0900 on the 5th, as he volunteered to guide traffic around an accident in the southbound lane of I-25. The driver of the car which struck the man did not see him because of the fog. The injured man was treated and released from the hospital.

8. Jul 20, 2000Hail$30,000
9. Nov 25, 1999High Wind, Platte$30,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   High winds again blew across parts of southeast Wyoming late on the 25th into the 26th of November,with gusts as high as 76 mph reported at Arlington, Wy, and 68 mph at Cheyenne, Wy. About a halfdozen tractor-trailer trucks were blown over on Interstates 25 and 80. About 50 households north ofCheyenne, Wy, experienced power outages due to tree limbs blowing onto power lines, with a metalgarage flattened near Cheyenne.

10. Jan 6, 2007High Wind, Platte$30,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Sustained winds from 40 to 50 mph occurred along Interstate 25 between Chugwater and Wheatland, WY., with a gust of 101 mph recorded near the Bordeaux exit. Between 10 and 11:15 AM there were 11 tractor-trailer trucks reported blown over resulting in 4 minor injuries, with windows blown out of some vehicles.

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 26, 2026

All-time low

−40°FDec 22, 1989

Warmest night

73°FJul 10, 2025

Coldest day

−12°FDec 21, 1990

Wettest day

2.75 inMay 19, 2018

Snowiest day

20.0 inMar 14, 2021

Hottest year

2024mean 51.3°F

Coldest year

1993mean 44.7°F

Wettest year

201919.23 in

Driest year

20126.15 in

Snowiest season

72.5 in2020-21

Station Old Fort Laramie (USC00486852), 4,257 ft elevation, 20.3 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1989 to September 30, 2026; 94.5% 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 USC00486852.
• 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.