Utah County, Utah: 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 Drought, with 168 records.
- The costliest single record is Thunderstorm Wind in 2006: $4.0M in property damage, in the dollars of that year.
- The deadliest record is Heat in 2013, with 3 deaths.
- FEMA has declared 13 disasters that named this county, most often for fire.
- The worst year for flood insurance claims was 1983, with 19 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 13 disasters that named Utah County between 1983 and 2026.
| Incident type | Disasters | Most recent |
|---|---|---|
| Fire | 6 | 2026 |
| Flood | 4 | 2023 |
| Biological | 2 | 2020 |
| Coastal Storm | 1 | 2005 |
Most recent declarations
- FM-5639 2026 · Fire · Iron Fire
- DR-4752 2023 · Flood · Flooding
- FM-5353 2020 · Fire · Ether Hollow Fire
- FM-5318 2020 · Fire · Knolls Fire
- DR-4525 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
- EM-3478 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
- FM-5277 2018 · Fire · Bald Mountain Fire
- FM-2983 2012 · Fire · Dump Fire
- DR-4011 2011 · Flood · Flooding
- EM-3223 2005 · Coastal Storm · Hurricane Katrina Evacuation
Not counted above: 4 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Utah. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drought | 168 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| High Wind | 135 | 0 | 10 | $385K |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 129 | 3 | 3 | $7.6M |
| Winter Storm | 97 | 0 | 2 | $300K |
| Winter Weather | 52 | 5 | 2 | $2.0M |
| Frost/Freeze | 46 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Heavy Snow | 43 | 0 | 0 | $175K |
| Hail | 37 | 0 | 0 | $434K |
| Flash Flood | 31 | 0 | 0 | $6.8M |
| Dense Fog | 20 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Extreme Cold/Wind Chill | 11 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Debris Flow | 9 | 0 | 0 | $384K |
| Lightning | 8 | 1 | 4 | $167K |
| Wildfire | 8 | 0 | 1 | $1.6M |
| Flood | 5 | 0 | 0 | $245K |
| Funnel Cloud | 5 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Tornado | 4 | 0 | 0 | $12K |
| Heat | 3 | 4 | 0 | $0 |
| Heavy Rain | 3 | 0 | 0 | $308K |
| Strong Wind | 3 | 0 | 0 | $10K |
| Cold/Wind Chill | 1 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Dust Storm | 1 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Excessive Heat | 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.
Year by year
NOAA storm event records in Utah County each year. The busiest year was 2023, with 54 records.
Show the numbers for every year
| Year | Records | Deaths | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 7 | 0 | $100K |
| 1997 | 8 | 1 | $57K |
| 1998 | 14 | 0 | $761K |
| 1999 | 1 | 0 | $0 |
| 2000 | 6 | 0 | $32K |
| 2001 | 7 | 1 | $252K |
| 2002 | 17 | 1 | $3.3M |
| 2003 | 21 | 0 | $19K |
| 2004 | 21 | 0 | $755K |
| 2005 | 26 | 0 | $2K |
| 2006 | 26 | 0 | $7.0M |
| 2007 | 23 | 0 | $0 |
| 2008 | 32 | 0 | $4K |
| 2009 | 22 | 0 | $5K |
| 2010 | 48 | 0 | $10K |
| 2011 | 42 | 0 | $55K |
| 2012 | 41 | 0 | $2.6M |
| 2013 | 43 | 4 | $1.3M |
| 2014 | 36 | 0 | $147K |
| 2015 | 39 | 1 | $100K |
| 2016 | 35 | 1 | $18K |
| 2017 | 20 | 0 | $230K |
| 2018 | 28 | 0 | $20K |
| 2019 | 31 | 0 | $288K |
| 2020 | 20 | 0 | $0 |
| 2021 | 37 | 0 | $207K |
| 2022 | 46 | 0 | $231K |
| 2023 | 54 | 3 | $926K |
| 2024 | 32 | 1 | $1.2M |
| 2025 | 26 | 0 | $516K |
| 2026 | 11 | 0 | $380K |
Years with no record are left out of the table, not shown as zero.
Notable events
Costliest records
- Thunderstorm Wind · Aug 1, 2006$4.0MNOAA name: UTAH · NOAA record 5529883
- Flash Flood · Sep 12, 2002$3.0MNOAA name: UTAH · NOAA record 5325454
- Thunderstorm Wind · Aug 1, 2006$3.0MNOAA name: UTAH · NOAA record 5529580
- Wildfire · Jun 27, 2012$1.5MNOAA name: SOUTHWEST UTAH · 1 injury · NOAA record 396292
- Flash Flood · Sep 1, 2012$1.0MNOAA name: UTAH · NOAA record 415008
Deadliest records
- Heat · Jul 1, 20133 deathsNOAA name: SOUTH CENTRAL UTAH · NOAA record 469328
- Winter Weather · Mar 21, 20233 deathsNOAA name: SOUTH CENTRAL UTAH · $40K damage · NOAA record 1088869
- Thunderstorm Wind · Aug 12, 19971 deathNOAA name: UTAH · 1 injury · NOAA record 5623784
- Thunderstorm Wind · Jul 4, 20011 deathNOAA name: UTAH · NOAA record 5275517
- Thunderstorm Wind · Jun 21, 20021 deathNOAA name: UTAH · NOAA record 5324332
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 $505K on 105 claims in Utah County from 1979 to 2024.
| Year | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| 1983 | 19 | $216K |
| 1984 | 16 | $88K |
| 2013 | 7 | $34K |
| 2023 | 6 | $18K |
| 2021 | 6 | $967 |
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 Utah 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 | 174 NCEI events over 31 years (5.61/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Flood, External | 3 | 39 NCEI events over 31 years (1.26/yr). 4 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Snow Fall / Blizzard / Ice Storm | 3 | 192 NCEI events over 31 years (6.19/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Temperature Extremes | 3 | 62 NCEI events over 31 years (2.00/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Drought | 3 | 168 NCEI events over 31 years (5.42/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Wild Fire | 3 | 8 NCEI events over 31 years (0.26/yr). 6 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| High Wind (non-convective) | 3 | 138 NCEI events over 31 years (4.45/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 | 4 NCEI events over 31 years (0.13/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Landslide | 2 | 9 NCEI events over 31 years (0.29/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 Utah 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 by county and others by forecast zone, and names both. Records are counted as Utah County when their NOAA name is this county's name, alone or with a word like “Coastal” or “Inland” in front. The county codes NOAA also publishes have not been loaded for Utah yet; when they are, this page will count by code instead, and some counties' records will grow. NOAA names counted here: SOUTH CENTRAL UTAH, SOUTHEAST UTAH, SOUTHWEST UTAH, UTAH, WEST CENTRAL UTAH. Zones named for something else, such as a mountain range or two counties at once, are left out: 56% of Utah's NOAA records.
- 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.