Pima County, Arizona: 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 Thunderstorm Wind, with 639 records.
- The costliest single record is Wildfire in 2003: $66.0M in property damage, in the dollars of that year.
- The deadliest record is Excessive Heat in 2023, with 40 deaths.
- FEMA has declared 15 disasters that named this county, most often for flood.
- The worst year for flood insurance claims was 1983, with 77 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 15 disasters that named Pima County between 1966 and 2020.
| Incident type | Disasters | Most recent |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | 8 | 1993 |
| Fire | 3 | 2020 |
| Biological | 2 | 2020 |
| Hurricane | 1 | 2005 |
| Severe Storm | 1 | 2006 |
Most recent declarations
- FM-5312 2020 · Fire · Big Horn Fire
- EM-3442 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
- DR-4524 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
- DR-1660 2006 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms And Flooding
- EM-3241 2005 · Hurricane · Hurricane Katrina Evacuation
- DR-1477 2003 · Fire · Aspen Fire
- FM-2470 2003 · Fire · Aspen Fire
- DR-977 1993 · Flood · Severe Storms, Tornadoes & Flooding
- DR-884 1990 · Flood · Severe Storms & Flooding
- DR-691 1983 · Flood · Severe Storms & Flooding
Not counted above: 37 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Arizona. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 639 | 0 | 19 | $46.1M |
| Flash Flood | 521 | 20 | 6 | $25.9M |
| Drought | 271 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Heat | 236 | 315 | 0 | $0 |
| Excessive Heat | 220 | 265 | 105 | $0 |
| Hail | 151 | 0 | 0 | $2.3M |
| Lightning | 78 | 3 | 20 | $1.2M |
| Wildfire | 67 | 0 | 5 | $149.5M |
| Winter Storm | 44 | 0 | 1 | $165K |
| Flood | 43 | 1 | 1 | $7.1M |
| High Wind | 43 | 0 | 0 | $249K |
| Heavy Rain | 19 | 0 | 0 | $772K |
| Strong Wind | 17 | 0 | 2 | $11.4M |
| Cold/Wind Chill | 16 | 20 | 1 | $0 |
| Heavy Snow | 16 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Funnel Cloud | 14 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Dust Storm | 13 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Tornado | 13 | 0 | 0 | $63K |
| Dust Devil | 10 | 0 | 8 | $48K |
| Frost/Freeze | 9 | 0 | 0 | $2.7M |
| Debris Flow | 8 | 0 | 0 | $42K |
| Winter Weather | 7 | 1 | 0 | $115K |
| Dense Smoke | 1 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Extreme Cold/Wind Chill | 1 | 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 Pima County each year. The busiest year was 2025, with 208 records.
Show the numbers for every year
| Year | Records | Deaths | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 53 | 0 | $1.9M |
| 1997 | 30 | 0 | $90K |
| 1998 | 31 | 1 | $168K |
| 1999 | 33 | 0 | $10.6M |
| 2000 | 41 | 0 | $585K |
| 2001 | 33 | 1 | $666K |
| 2002 | 29 | 0 | $472K |
| 2003 | 43 | 0 | $132.3M |
| 2004 | 29 | 0 | $54K |
| 2005 | 70 | 3 | $755K |
| 2006 | 52 | 1 | $5.4M |
| 2007 | 63 | 3 | $1.3M |
| 2008 | 63 | 4 | $3.8M |
| 2009 | 26 | 0 | $373K |
| 2010 | 46 | 2 | $1.2M |
| 2011 | 164 | 3 | $34.0M |
| 2012 | 93 | 4 | $1.3M |
| 2013 | 75 | 0 | $745K |
| 2014 | 60 | 3 | $549K |
| 2015 | 80 | 0 | $2.5M |
| 2016 | 51 | 4 | $1.8M |
| 2017 | 69 | 0 | $1.5M |
| 2018 | 132 | 18 | $8.1M |
| 2019 | 83 | 16 | $689K |
| 2020 | 133 | 35 | $328K |
| 2021 | 195 | 46 | $3.0M |
| 2022 | 151 | 48 | $4.2M |
| 2023 | 145 | 167 | $2.5M |
| 2024 | 152 | 118 | $26.2M |
| 2025 | 208 | 134 | $442K |
| 2026 | 24 | 14 | $3K |
Years with no record are left out of the table, not shown as zero.
Notable events
Costliest records
- Wildfire · Jun 17, 2003$66.0MNOAA name: Pima County · NOAA record 5378332
- Wildfire · Jul 1, 2003$66.0MNOAA name: Pima County · NOAA record 5330440
- Thunderstorm Wind · Jul 14, 2024$25.0MNOAA name: Pima County · NOAA record 1182434
- Wildfire · Jul 1, 2011$15.0MNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 336589
- Strong Wind · May 9, 2011$11.2MNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 311712
Deadliest records
- Excessive Heat · Jul 14, 202340 deathsNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 1127090
- Excessive Heat · Jul 8, 202420 deathsNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 1193811
- Heat · Jul 11, 202314 deathsNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 1126074
- Excessive Heat · Jul 14, 202312 deathsNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 1127012
- Excessive Heat · Jun 12, 202111 deathsNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 970319
Each line is one NOAA record, linked to its page at NOAA. One large storm can appear more than once if NOAA recorded it in several zones of this county. Dollars are nominal.
Flood insurance claims (NFIP)
The National Flood Insurance Program paid $7.9M on 578 claims in Pima County from 1978 to 2024.
| Year | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| 1983 | 77 | $933K |
| 1993 | 71 | $455K |
| 2006 | 43 | $1.3M |
| 2010 | 37 | $1.2M |
| 2003 | 31 | $309K |
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 Pima County
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 1996 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 | 868 NCEI events over 31 years (28.00/yr). 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county. |
| Flood, External | 3 | 583 NCEI events over 31 years (18.81/yr). 8 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Snow Fall / Blizzard / Ice Storm | 3 | 67 NCEI events over 31 years (2.16/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Temperature Extremes | 3 | 482 NCEI events over 31 years (15.55/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Drought | 3 | 271 NCEI events over 31 years (8.74/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Wild Fire | 3 | 67 NCEI events over 31 years (2.16/yr). 3 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| High Wind (non-convective) | 3 | 60 NCEI events over 31 years (1.94/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Hurricane / Tropical Storm | 2 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county. |
| Tornado | 2 | 13 NCEI events over 31 years (0.42/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Landslide | 2 | 8 NCEI events over 31 years (0.26/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Epidemic | 2 | 2 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Earthquake | 1 | 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 31 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 31 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 Pima County — 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 Pima County 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 2,457 records, 1,500 were filed against this county and 957 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: 6% of Arizona'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.
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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.