Bedford County, Tennessee

What hazards hit Bedford County most?

The most frequent records are severe thunderstorm wind events: 231 since 1957. The rank column places the county among Tennessee's counties by days with a record per 1,000 square miles of land over each hazard's complete period.

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database (county and forecast-zone records attributed to the county; a zone record shows its own totals on each county it covers). Days: dates with at least one record of the hazard in the county. Ranks: days with a record per 1,000 square miles of land (Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer), since 1950 for tornadoes, 1955 for hail and thunderstorm wind, 1996 for the rest.

How many tornadoes has Bedford County had?

NOAA records 20 tornadoes in Bedford County from 1955 to 2025, the strongest rated EF2, with 1 death and 9 injuries recorded in the county. That is 31st of 95 Tennessee counties by days with tornadoes per 1,000 square miles since 1950. A tornado that crossed a county line is counted in each county it touched, with the length of its path inside the county.

Counted as whole tornadoes rather than county records, the Storm Prediction Center's database holds 22 tornadoes whose track touched Bedford County since 1950 (NOAA's county records number 20: they file a crossing tornado once per county segment, and the two databases differ on some tracks); along their whole tracks they killed 2 people, 1 of them in Bedford County.

Map of the strongest tornado tracks in Tennessee.

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, tornado records by county (path length in the county, maximum width); ratings as published: F scale before February 1, 2007, EF scale after. Whole-track figures: NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database (1950-2025). SPC severe weather database.

When was the last damaging storm in Bedford County?

The most recent record with damage, injuries or deaths is the March 11, 2026 thunderstorm wind ($5,000 in damage in 2025 dollars).

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database; every record of 2025-2026 is listed, earlier ones when they caused deaths, injuries or $250,000 of damage (2025 dollars), and every tornado.

The deadliest and costliest records

A damage figure marked "step" is a record from before 1993: NOAA then filed damage by category, and the figure is the category as entered, in the dollars of that year, not an estimate of the loss.

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database: deaths and injuries direct and indirect; damage is property plus crops as estimated by the National Weather Service, converted to 2025 dollars.

Is it getting more frequent?

Records per decade for Bedford County's most frequent hazards. Counts rose everywhere after 1996, when NOAA began recording every event type, so compare decades within a hazard's complete period only (the shaded cells come before it).

Winter storms in the 2010s: 27 records against 7 in the decade before, 27 of them forecast-zone records. Drought in the 2020-26: 17 records against 5 in the decade before, 17 of them forecast-zone records. Cells marked z rose mostly through zone records. The local National Weather Service office files these once per forecast zone, so a change in how it draws its zones or splits a storm into records moves this count as much as the weather does; read it beside the Bedford County days with a record above.

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, records per calendar decade; zone records from the CZ_TYPE field (Z).

What time of year?

Records by month in Bedford County. The two busiest months are in violet.

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, records by the month they began.

Federal disaster declarations for Bedford County

FEMA's register lists 18 declarations that include Bedford County: 13 major disasters, 5 emergencies and 0 fire management assistance declarations. Most were for severe storm (6) and flood (3).

Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries (v2), declarations through October 2, 2026; one declaration is counted once however many areas it names. OpenFEMA dataset page.

How many floods has Bedford County had?

NOAA's Storm Events Database holds 50 flood or flash flood records for Bedford County from 1996 to 2025, on 42 days, with 0 deaths. By flood insurance claims since 1978 (OpenFEMA, as of September 8, 2026), Bedford County ranks 1907th of 2,942 U.S. counties.

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid $332,000 on 30 claims filed in Bedford County; the most in one year was 8 in 2003. Claims count insured losses only: uninsured flood damage is not in this file.

Source: FEMA OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims, as of September 8, 2026; claims by year of loss, payments in the dollars of the year paid. OpenFEMA dataset page.

FEMA's modeled risk for Bedford County

FEMA's National Risk Index rates Bedford County Relatively Low overall, with an expected annual loss of $25.4 million. These are FEMA's model estimates of future loss from 18 hazards, not a count of what happened; they can differ from the record above.

Source: FEMA National Risk Index, county table, December 2025 release. FEMA's National Risk Index map.

Counties that share a border with Bedford County

1. Rutherford County 903
2. Lincoln County 800
3. Coffee County 529
4. Moore County 509
5. Bedford County 486
6. Marshall County 372

Source: U.S. Census Bureau county adjacency file; NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, records since 1950. The Census Bureau's adjacency file.

Next

• Tornadoes in TennesseeEvery Tennessee tornado since 1950 and the counties with the most per square mile
• Severe thunderstorm wind in TennesseeThe state's severe thunderstorm wind events, by county, year and month
• The Tennessee recordEvery hazard in the state, its deadliest events and its federal declarations
• FEMA's risk rating for each hazard in Bedford CountyThe hazard risk calculator: 18 hazards beside the county's record
• Download Bedford County's FEMA declarations (CSV)18 rows: every declaration that named the county, for your own analysis