Klamath County, Oregon: 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 177 records.
- The costliest single record is Wildfire in 2024: $4.0M in property damage, in the dollars of that year.
- The deadliest record is Winter Weather in 2011, with 1 death.
- FEMA has declared 18 disasters that named this county, most often for fire.
- The worst year for flood insurance claims was 1997, with 5 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 18 disasters that named Klamath County between 1964 and 2026.
| Incident type | Disasters | Most recent |
|---|---|---|
| Fire | 11 | 2026 |
| Biological | 2 | 2020 |
| Coastal Storm | 1 | 2005 |
| Drought | 1 | 1977 |
| Earthquake | 1 | 1993 |
| Flood | 1 | 1964 |
| Severe Storm | 1 | 1996 |
Most recent declarations
- FM-5666 2026 · Fire · Wrights Spring Fire
- FM-5532 2024 · Fire · Copperfield Fire
- FM-5471 2023 · Fire · Golden Fire
- FM-5396 2021 · Fire · Bootleg Fire
- EM-3542 2020 · Fire · Wildfires
- DR-4562 2020 · Fire · Wildfires And Straight-line Winds
- FM-5354 2020 · Fire · Two Four Two Fire
- DR-4499 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
- EM-3429 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
- FM-5195 2017 · Fire · Pipeline Fire
Not counted above: 41 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Oregon. 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 | 177 | 0 | 1 | $0 |
| Frost/Freeze | 166 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| High Wind | 145 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Wildfire | 107 | 1 | 0 | $5.5M |
| Winter Storm | 70 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Extreme Cold/Wind Chill | 59 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Hail | 29 | 0 | 0 | $1K |
| Excessive Heat | 19 | 1 | 0 | $0 |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 13 | 0 | 0 | $10K |
| Blizzard | 9 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Flood | 9 | 0 | 0 | $470K |
| Cold/Wind Chill | 6 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Lightning | 4 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Winter Weather | 4 | 3 | 0 | $50K |
| Flash Flood | 3 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Tornado | 3 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Avalanche | 2 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Dense Smoke | 1 | 0 | 0 | $100K |
| Freezing Fog | 1 | 1 | 0 | $0 |
| Funnel Cloud | 1 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Strong Wind | 1 | 1 | 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 Klamath County each year. The busiest year was 2024, with 51 records.
Show the numbers for every year
| Year | Records | Deaths | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 1 | 0 | $0 |
| 1997 | 4 | 0 | $0 |
| 1998 | 2 | 0 | $0 |
| 1999 | 16 | 0 | $0 |
| 2000 | 48 | 0 | $0 |
| 2001 | 43 | 0 | $0 |
| 2002 | 34 | 0 | $0 |
| 2003 | 36 | 0 | $0 |
| 2004 | 27 | 0 | $0 |
| 2005 | 14 | 0 | $451K |
| 2006 | 19 | 0 | $0 |
| 2007 | 31 | 0 | $100K |
| 2008 | 37 | 0 | $10K |
| 2009 | 14 | 0 | $0 |
| 2010 | 38 | 0 | $0 |
| 2011 | 21 | 1 | $50K |
| 2012 | 46 | 0 | $0 |
| 2013 | 22 | 0 | $0 |
| 2014 | 34 | 0 | $1.5M |
| 2015 | 36 | 0 | $0 |
| 2016 | 36 | 0 | $0 |
| 2017 | 43 | 0 | $0 |
| 2018 | 22 | 0 | $0 |
| 2019 | 18 | 1 | $0 |
| 2020 | 21 | 3 | $0 |
| 2021 | 27 | 0 | $0 |
| 2022 | 27 | 1 | $0 |
| 2023 | 32 | 0 | $0 |
| 2024 | 51 | 1 | $4.0M |
| 2025 | 23 | 0 | $20K |
| 2026 | 6 | 0 | $0 |
Years with no record are left out of the table, not shown as zero.
Notable events
Costliest records
- Wildfire · Sep 1, 2024$4.0MNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 1216343
- Wildfire · Aug 1, 2014$1.5MNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 528845
- Flood · Dec 31, 2005$450KNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5482301
- Dense Smoke · Nov 5, 2007$100KNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 60126
- Winter Weather · Jan 2, 2011$50KNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 1 death · NOAA record 266483
Deadliest records
- Winter Weather · Jan 2, 20111 deathNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $50K damage · NOAA record 266483
- Strong Wind · Jan 23, 20191 deathNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 794653
- Winter Weather · Nov 19, 20201 deathNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 924168
- Freezing Fog · Dec 12, 20201 deathNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 925612
- Winter Weather · Dec 14, 20201 deathNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 925380
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 $231K on 10 claims in Klamath County from 1982 to 2017.
| Year | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 5 | $201K |
| 2017 | 1 | $0 |
| 2008 | 1 | $18K |
| 2005 | 1 | $7K |
| 1993 | 1 | $0 |
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 Klamath 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 | 46 NCEI events over 31 years (1.48/yr). 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county. |
| Snow Fall / Blizzard / Ice Storm | 3 | 261 NCEI events over 31 years (8.42/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Temperature Extremes | 3 | 250 NCEI events over 31 years (8.06/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Wild Fire | 3 | 107 NCEI events over 31 years (3.45/yr). 11 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| High Wind (non-convective) | 3 | 146 NCEI events over 31 years (4.71/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. |
| Flood, External | 2 | 12 NCEI events over 31 years (0.39/yr). 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county. |
| Drought | 2 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 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. |
| Tornado | 1 | 3 NCEI events over 31 years (0.10/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Landslide | 1 | 2 NCEI events over 31 years (0.06/yr). 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 Klamath 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 Klamath 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 829 records, 85 were filed against this county and 744 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: 31% of Oregon'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.