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Nebraska · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index

Dixon County, NE

19 FEMA disaster declarations (1967-2022), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.

19
FEMA declarations
16
Major disasters
9
NRI risk · Very Low
Severe Storm
Top hazard

The verdict

Two federal records point in the busier direction for Dixon County. Its 19 FEMA declarations are 13% above the Nebraska county mean and exceed the count for 41% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 9%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.

Safer than 9%
of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
Very Low
FEMA National Risk Index rating
19
FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
3
NFIP flood insurance claims filed

FEMA's National Risk Index and its declaration registry are separate measures. This county's registry includes Major Disaster (DR) and Emergency (EM) records; an EM authorizes a narrower set of federal assistance than a DR.

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FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk

County FIPS 31051 · Dixon County 19 declarations · rank 1905/3,266

DECL-MID · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE

  • DECL-MID 19
  • MAJOR-HEAVY 84%
  • RANK-LOWER #1,905
  • PHOTO-FINISH Bartow
  • NRI-LOW Very Low
  • ACT-HIGH High
  • TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
  • VS-ST-ABOVE +13%

Nearest declaration peer: Bartow, GA (0 declaration gap)

FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Nebraska state profile

Dixon County in the declaration-count neighbourhood

FEMA declaration records among Dixon County and nearest peers by total count

declarations

What this shows Dixon County carries 19 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1905 of 3,266 counties in this registry.

Source FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 As of 2026-08-25

How Dixon County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally

Dixon County vs. all counties in this dataset

FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Dixon County

19 41st percentile higher than 41% of 3,266 counties

This county 0 90 all U.S. counties FEMA tracks, bucketed by value

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more counties. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 · 2026-08-25

Dixon County's FEMA Risk Index score

0/100100/100Nebraska avg26/1008.8/100
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Nebraska county average

Which hazard drives modeled loss here?

FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Dixon County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $2.1M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very High), while Hail carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate). EAL and risk score use different inputs; they need not agree.

Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025 release) - Expected Annual Loss vs composite risk rating by hazard.

What does Dixon County's hazard record show?

FEMA National Risk Index

FEMA's National Risk Index places this county in the low end of the national distribution, composite score 8.8/100 (Very Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $6.1M in annualized losses). Two modifiers shape how that exposure becomes real-world harm here: social vulnerability (Very Low) and community resilience (Relatively Low). Among the 18 modeled hazards, Hail carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 6.3 times per year here, based on 239 historical events on record.

Reading the federal records together

This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 3 claims and $32.7K paid in total. PlainHazard calls 1-49 claims a light registry record, a label for this dataset rather than a finding that flood exposure is low. A short claims history can also reflect insurance take-up, the period covered, or losses that were never insured.

The declaration register points in the busier direction. Dixon County's 19 federal records stand 13% above the Nebraska county mean of 16.8. That comparison describes how often federal action was recorded, including any Major Disaster, Emergency, and Fire Management entries shown on this page; it does not convert the count into future probability.

62 /100

Historical Activity Index

High historical activity

Dixon County, NE · PlainHazard-derived composite from federal records

This 0–100 index is an explicit PlainHazard composite from FEMA declaration history only on the county surface (this DB has no county-level NOAA damage row) . It is not FEMA's National Risk Index, not a forecast, and not a safety, insurance, or preparedness rating. Open the calculator · Methodology

FEMA Declarations (1953–present) Moderate
14/30

19 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.9x national county average)

County Disaster Density High
14/25

19 declarations (1.1x state county average of 17)

Major Disaster Share Very High
21/25

16 of 19 declarations are major disasters (84%)

Hazard Diversity High
13/20

5 different disaster types declared in Dixon County

FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Dixon County

Dixon County NRI risk profile 8-axis FEMA National Risk Index radar showing per-hazard scores for Earthquake 8, Flood 8, Hurricane 0, Tornado 25, Wildfire 25, Drought 48, Heat Wave 8, Winter Storm 25. The simple mean of these eight displayed scores is 18 of 100. Earthquake Flood Hurricane Tornado Wildfire Drought Heat Wave Winter Storm 18 8-hazard mean
Dixon County NRI risk profile FIPS 31051 · displayed-hazard mean 18/100
How to read this radar

Each axis: NRI risk rating (Very Low-Very High) on a 0-100 scale. Rounder = broad exposure; spiky = one or two hazards dominate.

FEMA Records

19

Below median

Major Disaster share

84%

Mostly major

NRI risk score

9

Very Low

Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release

How often does each hazard strike Dixon County?

FEMA's National Risk Index models a historical event count and an annualized frequency for each hazard type. Most hazards are expressed as modeled occurrences per year; FEMA expresses drought and heat-wave frequency as event-days per year. These modeled frequencies are not forecasts.

Hazard NRI Risk Rating Recurrence
Hail Relatively Moderate an average of 6.3 times per year
Landslide Relatively Low roughly once every 4 years
Drought Relatively Moderate 36 modeled event-days per year
Wildfire Relatively Low roughly once every 549 years
Tornado Relatively Low roughly once every 3 years
Ice Storm Relatively Low roughly once every 1 years
Heat Wave Very Low 6.6 modeled event-days per year
Winter Weather Relatively Low an average of 15 times per year
Strong Wind Relatively Low an average of 3.8 times per year
Cold Wave Very Low an average of 6.2 times per year
Riverine Flooding Very Low roughly once every 1 years
Lightning Very Low an average of 41 times per year
Earthquake Very Low roughly once every 2,020 years

Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release

Disaster Types

Severe Storm 8
Flood 7
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Tornado 1

What Severe Storm declarations mean here

Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Dixon County's record, 42% of its declarations. In FEMA's vocabulary this covers convective weather: thunderstorm straight-line winds, large hail, and the multi-day outbreaks that often carry embedded tornadoes. Activity is heaviest in spring and summer, though the season varies by region.

These events behave differently from a hurricane on paper. Damage tends to be distributed along a storm track rather than concentrated on a coastline, and a declaration typically follows an outbreak that crossed several counties over a few days, not a single point of impact. Because the qualifying threshold is the cost of uninsured public and individual losses rather than storm intensity, two similar storms can produce a declaration in one year and none in another.

Declaration counts describe past federal action. They are a record of what was declared, not a forecast of future hazard probability.

Declaration Types

What DR / EM / FM mean

FEMA categorizes declarations as Major Disasters (DR), Emergencies (EM), or Fire Management Assistance (FM).

Major Disaster - 16 84.2%

of all 19 declarations

Emergency - 3 15.8%

of all 19 declarations

FEMA Declarations Timeline

Year Declarations
2022 1
2020 2
2019 1
2018 1
2014 2
2011 2
2010 2
2009 1
2007 1
2005 1
2003 1
1984 1
1971 2
1967 1

Disaster Declarations

How the 19 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.

Download these 19 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.

DR# Title Type Incident Date
4662 SEVERE STORMS AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS DR Severe Storm 2022-07-27
4521 COVID-19 PANDEMIC DR Biological 2020-04-04
3483 COVID-19 EM Biological 2020-03-13
4420 SEVERE WINTER STORM, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING DR Flood 2019-03-21
4387 SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2018-08-27
4183 SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2014-07-24
4156 SEVERE STORMS, WINTER STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2013-11-26
4013 FLOODING DR Flood 2011-08-12
3323 FLOODING EM Flood 2011-06-18
1902 SEVERE STORMS, ICE JAMS, AND FLOODING DR Flood 2010-04-21
1878 SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND SNOWSTORM DR Severe Storm 2010-02-25
1853 SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES DR Severe Storm 2009-07-31
1674 SEVERE WINTER STORMS DR Severe Storm 2007-01-07
3245 HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUEES EM Hurricane 2005-09-13
1480 SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES DR Severe Storm 2003-07-21
716 TORNADOES & FLOODING DR Tornado 1984-07-03
308 FLOODS DR Flood 1971-07-07
303 FLOODS DR Flood 1971-02-23
228 SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING DR Flood 1967-07-18

Storm Events in Nebraska

Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Dixon County.

Storm Type Events Fatalities Injuries Property Damage
Hail 6,079 0 2 $237.7M
Thunderstorm Wind 4,757 3 19 $228.1M
Drought 1,658 0 0 $0
High Wind 1,647 1 1 $22.1M
Winter Storm 1,155 0 2 $335.0K

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025

NFIP Flood Insurance Claims

Total Claims

3

Total Paid

$32.7K

Avg Per Claim

$10.9K

Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data

FEMA National Risk Index

Overall Risk

Very Low

Score: 8.8/100

Expected Annual Loss

Very Low

$6.1M/year

Social Vulnerability

Very Low

Community Resilience

Relatively Low

Hazard Risk Breakdown

Hail Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Earthquake Very Low

Source: FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) Ratings reflect relative scores among all US counties. Data: hazards.fema.gov/nri

The model's sharpest exposure here: Hail

Hail is among the most expensive hazards in the model relative to how little it threatens life. It concentrates on roofs, vehicles and crops, and a single severe storm can generate an insurance loss across a metropolitan area without a single injury.

For Dixon County the two measures on this page point the same way: Hail is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Moderate), and Severe Storm declarations also lead its federal record. Where the model and the declaration history agree, the reading is comparatively straightforward, the hazard is both expected and repeatedly realised.

National Risk Index ratings are modeled estimates of expected annual loss, not predictions of what will happen in any given year.

Data-matched county comparisons

Dixon County's closest FEMA peer: Clay County, SD

Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Dixon County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.

How these peers are chosen

Cohort: Published U.S. county equivalents outside the source state or territory. Each metric keeps six ETL candidates; three unique destinations are shown after de-duplicating across axes. Declaration-volume ranking combines count and Major-disaster share and prefers a different leading incident type; Major-share ranks the Major fraction adjusted for volume; NRI ranks the modeled composite score only.

Retained FEMA snapshot feed for Dixon County - capture-dated entries only.

Compare beyond this state

Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume

Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Dixon County: nearest out-of-state National Risk Index composite and nearest FEMA declaration count (floor ≥5 records). Record similarity only, not a forecast of the next hazard.

Further reading for this county

Most disaster-prone counties

With 19 FEMA declarations, Dixon County sits in the high-volume declaration band - see how that count ranks against other U.S. counties.

More PlainHazard guides

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most common disaster type in Dixon County?
The most common disaster type in Dixon County is Severe Storm, with 8 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (7), Biological (2), Hurricane (1).
How does Dixon County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Nebraska average?
FEMA lists 19 declaration records for Dixon County. That is 13% above the Nebraska county mean of 16.8. Its count is also 8% below the national county mean of 20.7. A larger declaration history records more federal actions; it is not a forecast of the county's next hazard.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Dixon County received?
Dixon County has received 16 major disaster declarations, representing 84% of all 19 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Dixon County filed?
Dixon County has 3 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $32.7K in payments, with an average of $10.9K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Dixon County?
No. In Dixon County, Hail has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $2.1M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Dixon County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Dixon County was 1971, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1967 to 2022.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Dixon County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Dixon County, Nebraska has an overall risk score of 8.8 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very Low; on community resilience, Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $6.1M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Dixon County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Dixon County is Hail (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Landslide (Relatively Low) and Drought (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hail here at an average of 6.3 times per year, drawn from 239 historical events on record. The underlying methodology weighs historical event frequency against exposed assets and community vulnerability.
Data Sources & Methodology

Disaster declaration data comes from the FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 API, which includes all federally declared disasters, emergencies, and fire management assistance grants.

Storm event data is sourced from the NOAA Storm Events Database (2015-2025), which tracks significant weather events including thunderstorms, tornadoes, floods, and winter storms.

Flood insurance data comes from the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA claims dataset.

This data is provided for informational purposes only. FEMA disaster declarations represent federal response actions and may not capture all local emergencies or weather events.

FEMA OpenFEMA declarations + NRI for Dixon County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Nebraska profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events