Davidson County, Tennessee

What hazards hit Davidson County most?

The most frequent records are severe thunderstorm wind events: 971 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 Davidson County had?

NOAA records 53 tornadoes in Davidson County from 1952 to 2026, the strongest rated EF3, with 7 deaths and 295 injuries recorded in the county. That is 3rd of 95 Tennessee counties and 129th of 3,080 U.S. 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 53 tornadoes whose track touched Davidson County since 1950 (NOAA's county records number 53, the same count); along their whole tracks they killed 17 people, 7 of them in Davidson 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 Davidson County?

The most recent record with damage, injuries or deaths is the April 28, 2026 tornado ($200,000 in damage in 2025 dollars).

An EF-1 tornado touched down just east of Ridgewood Road and proceeded east after inflow produced straight-line wind damage along Strawberry Hill Road. The tornado moved east, leaving convergent swirl markings in an open farm field and snapping two rows of pine trees. The tornado continued east-northeast into Robertson County. Damages are a rough estimate.
National Weather Service event narrative, NOAA Storm Events Database (search the full record, event 1322384)

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 Davidson 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: 51 records against 6 in the decade before, 51 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 Davidson 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 Davidson County. The two busiest months are in violet.

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

Federal disaster declarations for Davidson County

FEMA's register lists 28 declarations that include Davidson County: 23 major disasters, 5 emergencies and 0 fire management assistance declarations. Most were for severe storm (14) and tornado (5).

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 Davidson County had?

NOAA's Storm Events Database holds 170 flood or flash flood records for Davidson County from 1996 to 2025, on 116 days, with 16 deaths. By flood insurance claims since 1978 (OpenFEMA, as of September 8, 2026), Davidson County ranks 98th of 2,942 U.S. counties. The 100 counties with the most claims

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid $186 million on 4,787 claims filed in Davidson County; the most in one year was 2,315 in 2010. 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 Davidson County

FEMA's National Risk Index rates Davidson County Relatively High overall, with an expected annual loss of $262 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 Davidson County

1. Davidson County 1,709
2. Wilson County 1,023
3. Williamson County 915
4. Rutherford County 903
5. Sumner County 884
6. Robertson County 620
7. Cheatham County 393

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 Davidson CountyThe hazard risk calculator: 18 hazards beside the county's record
• Download Davidson County's FEMA declarations (CSV)28 rows: every declaration that named the county, for your own analysis