Kay County, Oklahoma

What hazards hit Kay County most?

The most frequent records are hail reports: 568 since 1955. 55% of its hail reports since 1955 fell in April and May. The rank column places the county among Oklahoma'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 Kay County had?

NOAA records 103 tornadoes in Kay County from 1950 to 2026, the strongest rated F5, with 20 deaths and 295 injuries recorded in the county. That is 8th of 77 Oklahoma counties and 101st 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 102 tornadoes whose track touched Kay County since 1950 (NOAA's county records number 103: they file a crossing tornado once per county segment, and the two databases differ on some tracks); along their whole tracks they killed 102 people, 20 of them in Kay County.

Map of the strongest tornado tracks in Oklahoma.

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 Kay County?

The most recent record with damage, injuries or deaths is the June 22, 2026 flash flood ($10,000 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 Kay 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).

Drought in the 2010s: 51 records against 17 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 Kay 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?

55% of its hail reports since 1955 fell in April and May. The two busiest months are in violet.

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

Federal disaster declarations for Kay County

FEMA's register lists 36 declarations that include Kay County: 27 major disasters, 8 emergencies and one fire management assistance declaration. Most were for severe storm (17) and severe ice storm (7).

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 Kay County had?

NOAA's Storm Events Database holds 92 flood or flash flood records for Kay County from 1996 to 2026, on 62 days, with 1 death. By flood insurance claims since 1978 (OpenFEMA, as of September 8, 2026), Kay County ranks 674th of 2,942 U.S. counties.

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid $3.2 million on 346 claims filed in Kay County; the most in one year was 59 in 2008. 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 Kay County

FEMA's National Risk Index rates Kay County Relatively Low overall, with an expected annual loss of $33.6 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 Kay County

1. Osage County 1,740
2. Kay County 1,627
3. Cowley County, KS 1,585
4. Garfield County 1,574
5. Sumner County, KS 1,313
6. Grant County 960
7. Noble County 785

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 OklahomaEvery Oklahoma tornado since 1950 and the counties with the most per square mile
• Hail in OklahomaThe state's hail reports, by county, year and month
• The Oklahoma recordEvery hazard in the state, its deadliest events and its federal declarations
• FEMA's risk rating for each hazard in Kay CountyThe hazard risk calculator: 18 hazards beside the county's record
• Download Kay County's FEMA declarations (CSV)36 rows: every declaration that named the county, for your own analysis