Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska: hazard history
What federal records show has already happened here: disaster declarations, storms, and flood insurance claims. This is a record of the past. It is not a forecast and not a hazard score.
At a glance
What this means
- The event NOAA recorded most often here is Heavy Snow, with 19 records.
- FEMA has declared 16 disasters that named this county, most often for fire.
- The worst year for flood insurance claims was 2008, with 47 claims.
What this can't tell you
- What happens next. Past events do not set the odds of the next one.
- Anything before 1996 from NOAA. That is when NOAA began recording every event type; earlier files hold only tornado, hail and wind, so they are left out on purpose.
- Today's cost. Damage and payments are in the dollars of the year they happened.
- A flood rate. NFIP counts claims but not how many homes were insured, and many flooded homes carry no flood insurance.
- Earthquakes, wildfire perimeters or radar-detected hail. Those records are not tied to counties.
Federal disaster declarations (FEMA)
FEMA declared 16 disasters that named Fairbanks North Star Borough between 1989 and 2025.
| Incident type | Disasters | Most recent |
|---|---|---|
| Fire | 6 | 2025 |
| Severe Storm | 4 | 2021 |
| Biological | 2 | 2020 |
| Earthquake | 1 | 2002 |
| Flood | 1 | 2002 |
| Freezing | 1 | 1989 |
| Snowstorm | 1 | 1991 |
Most recent declarations
- FM-5597 2025 · Fire · Nenana Ridge Complex
- FM-5596 2025 · Fire · Himalaya Road Fire
- FM-5473 2023 · Fire · Lost Horse Creek Fire
- DR-4648 2021 · Severe Storm · Severe Winter Storm And Straight-line Winds
- DR-4533 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
- EM-3446 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
- FM-5282 2019 · Fire · Shovel Creek Fire
- DR-4162 2013 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding
- FM-2909 2011 · Fire · Moose Mountain Fire
- DR-1796 2008 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides
Not counted above: 29 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Alaska. A declaration is a decision to send federal help, not a measure of how bad an event was. Records run from 1953. Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries.
Storms recorded by NOAA, by type
| Event type | Records | Deaths | Injuries | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy Snow | 19 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Winter Storm | 7 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
Records start in 1996. Damage is NOAA's estimate at the time, in nominal dollars, and is often rounded; it is not insurance claims data. A storm that crossed two NOAA zones in this county is recorded, and counted, once per zone. A storm filed against a forecast zone is counted in every county that zone covers, with the whole storm's damage; do not add these figures across counties.
Year by year
NOAA storm event records in Fairbanks North Star Borough each year. The busiest year was 2026, with 13 records.
Show the numbers for every year
| Year | Records | Deaths | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 8 | 0 | $0 |
| 2025 | 5 | 0 | $0 |
| 2026 | 13 | 0 | $0 |
Years with no record are left out of the table, not shown as zero.
Flood insurance claims (NFIP)
The National Flood Insurance Program paid $2.5M on 244 claims in Fairbanks North Star Borough from 1978 to 2024.
| Year | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 47 | $644K |
| 1991 | 28 | $125K |
| 2003 | 23 | $161K |
| 1980 | 20 | $21K |
| 2020 | 12 | $348K |
A count of claims, not a rate: NFIP publishes no count of insured homes beside it, and most flood damage is uninsured. Nominal dollars. Records run from 1978 to 2024; claims filed without a county code are not on any county page. Source: FEMA OpenFEMA FIMA NFIP Redacted Claims.
Hazard vulnerability analysis: the probability column for a facility in Fairbanks North Star Borough
A hazard vulnerability analysis rates each hazard for probability, impact, preparedness and response. Probability is the one column the county’s federal record can fill — NCEI storm events from 2024 to 2026 and FEMA declarations naming the county — and this is what it says for a facility here, on the 0–3 scale of the all-hazards structure surveyors expect. The other six columns are the facility’s own judgment about its building, and Calchis leaves them blank.
| Hazard | Prob. | Basis, from the county record |
|---|---|---|
| Severe Thunderstorm | 3 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 3 years. 4 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Snow Fall / Blizzard / Ice Storm | 3 | 26 NCEI events over 3 years (8.67/yr). 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county. |
| Wild Fire | 3 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 3 years. 6 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Flood, External | 2 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 3 years. 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county. |
| Temperature Extremes | 2 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 3 years. 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county. |
| Earthquake | 2 | 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county. |
| Epidemic | 2 | 2 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Hurricane / Tropical Storm | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 3 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Tornado | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 3 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Drought | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 3 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| High Wind (non-convective) | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 3 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Landslide | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 3 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Tidal Wave / Tsunami | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 3 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Volcano | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 3 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Dam Inundation | 1 | No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
A dash means the record does not speak to that hazard; it is not a zero. Whether a finished document satisfies the CMS Emergency Preparedness Rule is the facility’s finding and its surveyor’s. Complete the HVA for a facility in Fairbanks North Star Borough — the technological, human and hazardous-materials rows, the six facility columns, the approval and the printed document — or read the sample analysis on that page first.
How this page was made
- Every figure is counted from public federal records held by Calchis: NOAA NCEI Storm Events, FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations, and FEMA NFIP claims. Nothing is modeled or estimated.
- NOAA files some events against a county and others against an NWS forecast zone, and publishes a code for both. Records are counted as Fairbanks North Star Borough by that code — county records by the county's own FIPS code, zone records through the National Weather Service's published list of which counties each zone covers. No name matching is involved. Of 26 records, 0 were filed against this county and 26 against a forecast zone covering it. A zone storm is counted in every county its zone covers, and its damage figure is the whole storm's, not this county's share — NOAA does not publish that split. So these figures describe this county; they must not be added up across counties. Left out: 86% of Alaska's NOAA records, which are marine zones or zones NWS does not map to a county.
- Counts last rebuilt from the source records on Sep 15, 2026.
- This county's NOAA record is short (under 100 records, under 10 with damage, or under 10 years), so this page is not offered to search engines. It is still accurate.
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Recorded history from federal public records. Not a hazard score, a risk score, or a forecast, and not a substitute for professional actuarial or emergency-management assessment. Decision-support intelligence — not a primary alerting or dispatch system. Verify against official sources.