Wise County, Texas: hazard history

FEMA declared 22 disasters that named Wise County between 1981 and 2021.

Most recent declarations

• EM-3554 2021 · Severe Ice Storm · Severe Winter Storm
• DR-4586 2021 · Severe Ice Storm · Severe Winter Storms
• DR-4485 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• EM-3458 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• DR-4223 2015 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds And Flooding
• DR-4029 2011 · Fire · Wildfires
• EM-3294 2008 · Hurricane · Hurricane Ike
• EM-3284 2008 · Fire · Wildfires
• DR-1709 2007 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding
• DR-1624 2005 · Fire · Extreme Wildfire Threat

Not counted above: 102 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Texas. 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.

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.

NOAA storm event records in Wise County each year. The busiest year was 2011, with 67 records.

Years with no record are left out of the table, not shown as zero.

Costliest records

1. Tornado · Apr 25, 2026$5.0M
   NOAA name: Wise County · 1 death · 6 injuries · NOAA record 1331444
2. Hail · May 8, 1998$2.0M
   NOAA name: Wise County · NOAA record 5645553
3. Heavy Snow · Feb 11, 2010$2.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 214725
4. Winter Storm · Dec 5, 2013$2.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 488072
5. Wildfire · Jan 29, 2008$1.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 75431

Deadliest records

1. Tornado · Dec 2, 19992 deaths
   NOAA name: Wise County · $600K damage · 3 injuries · NOAA record 5720060
2. Heat · Jul 1, 20112 deaths
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 324052
3. Heavy Rain · Oct 14, 20131 death
   NOAA name: Wise County · $40K damage · NOAA record 480231
4. Tornado · Apr 25, 20261 death
   NOAA name: Wise County · $5.0M damage · 6 injuries · NOAA record 1331444

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.

The National Flood Insurance Program paid $2.4M on 93 claims in Wise County from 1986 to 2024.

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.

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.

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 Wise 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.

• 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 Wise 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 937 records, 709 were filed against this county and 228 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: 1% of Texas'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.