Osborne County, Kansas

What hazards hit Osborne County most?

The most frequent records are hail reports: 352 since 1961. 58% of its hail reports since 1961 fell in May and June. The rank column places the county among Kansas'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 Osborne County had?

NOAA records 48 tornadoes in Osborne County from 1950 to 2019, the strongest rated F4, with 0 deaths and 13 injuries recorded in the county. 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 45 tornadoes whose track touched Osborne County since 1950 (NOAA's county records number 48: they file a crossing tornado once per county segment, and the two databases differ on some tracks); along their whole tracks they killed 1 person, 0 of them in Osborne County.

Map of the strongest tornado tracks in Kansas.

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 Osborne County?

The most recent record with damage, injuries or deaths is the May 25, 2024 hail ($470,000 in damage in 2025 dollars).

Scattered thunderstorms, including intense supercells, produce large to very large hail and locally heavy rainfall over portions of north central Kansas during the evening hours of May 25th. Initial thunderstorm development occurred on an isolated basis near the I-70 corridor, just SW of Rooks County, between 5pm and 6pm CDT. This activity quickly become supercellular and very intense around 6PM as individual cells moved northeast into Rooks and Osborne Counties. Storms reached peak intensity and turned more easterly between 7pm and 9pm, aided by lift associated with a retreating warm front and developing low level jet. Hail reports of ping pong to golf ball size were common with these storms, but a report of baseball size hail was also reported in Downs, KS. Thunderstorms grew upscale into small clusters around 9pm, and largely shifted E/SE of the area by around 10pm. …
National Weather Service event narrative, NOAA Storm Events Database (search the full record, event 1175684)

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 Osborne 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).

High wind and dust storms in the 2020-26: 18 records against 5 in the decade before, 18 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 Osborne 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?

58% of its hail reports since 1961 fell in May and June. The two busiest months are in violet.

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

Federal disaster declarations for Osborne County

FEMA's register lists 19 declarations that include Osborne County: 16 major disasters, 3 emergencies and 0 fire management assistance declarations. Most were for severe storm (13) and biological (2).

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 Osborne County had?

NOAA's Storm Events Database holds 20 flood or flash flood records for Osborne County from 1996 to 2021, on 20 days, with 0 deaths. By flood insurance claims since 1978 (OpenFEMA, as of September 8, 2026), Osborne County ranks 2436th of 2,942 U.S. counties.

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid $168,000 on 8 claims filed in Osborne County; the most in one year was 8 in 1993. 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 Osborne County

FEMA's National Risk Index rates Osborne County Very Low overall, with an expected annual loss of $7.0 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 Osborne County

1. Russell County 1,292
2. Ellis County 1,194
3. Osborne County 776
4. Lincoln County 774
5. Mitchell County 757
6. Rooks County 755
7. Jewell County 748
8. Smith County 710

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 KansasEvery Kansas tornado since 1950 and the counties with the most per square mile
• Hail in KansasThe state's hail reports, by county, year and month
• The Kansas recordEvery hazard in the state, its deadliest events and its federal declarations
• FEMA's risk rating for each hazard in Osborne CountyThe hazard risk calculator: 18 hazards beside the county's record
• Download Osborne County's FEMA declarations (CSV)19 rows: every declaration that named the county, for your own analysis