FEMA Records
15
Below median
Montana · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Rosebud County, MT
15 FEMA disaster declarations (1978-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 15
- FEMA declarations
- 10
- Major disasters
- 50
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Rosebud County. Its 15 FEMA declarations are 37% above the Montana county mean and exceed the count for 23% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 50%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 50%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 15
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 12
- NFIP flood insurance claims filed
FEMA's National Risk Index and its declaration registry are separate measures. This county's registry includes Fire Management Assistance (FM) records, which are not presidential disaster declarations, alongside Major Disaster (DR) and Emergency (EM) records.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 30087 · Rosebud County 15 declarations · rank 2391/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-MID 15
- MAJOR-MID 67%
- RANK-LOWER #2,391
- PHOTO-FINISH Polk
- NRI-LOW 50
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-ABOVE +37%
Nearest declaration peer: Polk, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Montana state profile
Rosebud County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Rosebud County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Flathead · near 15
Flathead · near
15 declarations
- Murray · near 15
Murray · near
15 declarations
- Polk · near 15
Polk · near
15 declarations
- Rosebud · this county 15
Rosebud · this county
15 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Rosebud County carries 15 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2391 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Rosebud County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Rosebud County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Rosebud County
15 23rd percentile higher than 23% of 3,266 counties
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
Rosebud County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Rosebud County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $4.4M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very High), while Wildfire 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 Rosebud County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 49.7/100 for this county (Relatively Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $8.7M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Very High) and community resilience (Very Low) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Wildfire carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 191 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 12 claims and $15.5K 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. Rosebud County's 15 federal records stand 37% above the Montana county mean of 11.0. 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.
60 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Rosebud County, MT · 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
11/30
15 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.7x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
17/25
15 declarations (1.4x state county average of 11)
Major Disaster Share High
17/25
10 of 15 declarations are major disasters (67%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Rosebud County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Rosebud County
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.
Major Disaster share
67%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
50
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Rosebud 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 191 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 17 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 5.1 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | an average of 2.6 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 30 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 1.6 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 64 modeled event-days per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 2.3 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,905 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 6
Flood 4
Biological 2
Straight-Line Winds 1
Severe Storm 1
Hurricane 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Rosebud County's record, 40% of its declarations. Wildfire is the one hazard here with its own dedicated federal instrument: the Fire Management Assistance Grant, which appears in this data as an FM record. An FMAG can be authorised while a fire is still burning, on a timescale of hours, because its purpose is to reimburse the cost of fighting a fire that threatens to become a major disaster.
That distinction matters when comparing counties. An FM declaration is not a presidential major disaster declaration and does not carry the same assistance programmes, so a fire-heavy county's total is not directly comparable with a hurricane-heavy county's total unless the declaration types are separated, which is why they are listed separately on this page.
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 - 10 66.7%
of all 15 declarations
Fire Management - 3 20.0%
of all 15 declarations
Emergency - 2 13.3%
of all 15 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2012 | 2 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1987 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 15 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 15 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4902 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Straight-Line Winds | 2026-04-07 |
| 4623 | RICHARD SPRING FIRE | DR | Fire | 2021-09-30 |
| 5406 | RICHARD SPRING FIRE | FM | Fire | 2021-08-10 |
| 5345 | SNIDER/RICE FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2020-09-03 |
| 4508 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-31 |
| 3476 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4172 | ICE JAMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2014-04-17 |
| 4127 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2013-07-10 |
| 4074 | WILDFIRE | DR | Fire | 2012-08-02 |
| 2989 | ASH CREEK FIRE | FM | Fire | 2012-06-27 |
| 1996 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-06-17 |
| 3253 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1340 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2000-08-30 |
| 777 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1986-10-14 |
| 558 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1978-05-29 |
Storm Events in Montana
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Rosebud County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 3,735 | 1 | 2 | $5.3M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 2,396 | 5 | 24 | $15.1M |
| Hail | 2,015 | 0 | 0 | $4.1M |
| Winter Storm | 1,502 | 13 | 18 | $11.2M |
| Heavy Snow | 796 | 5 | 3 | $143.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
12
Total Paid
$15.5K
Avg Per Claim
$1.3K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 49.7/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$8.7M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Avalanche 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: Wildfire
Wildfire risk in the model reflects fuel, terrain, weather and how much development sits in the wildland-urban interface. It is one of the few hazards where the exposure is materially changed by land management and building choices, not only by where the county happens to be.
For Rosebud County the two measures on this page point the same way: Wildfire is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Moderate), and Fire 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
Rosebud County's closest FEMA peer: Centre County, PA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Rosebud County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Rosebud County shows 15 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
Similar Major-disaster share
Rosebud County: 10 of 15 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Rosebud County: NRI composite 49.7 (Relatively Low).
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 Rosebud County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Rosebud 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.
Similar NRI composite
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA NRI score. This county: 49.7 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 15. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 15 FEMA declarations, Rosebud County sits in the high-volume declaration band - see how that count ranks against other U.S. counties.
More PlainHazard guides
- Most disaster-prone counties - U.S. counties ranked by FEMA declaration totals.
- Understanding disaster data - declarations vs storm events vs NRI scores.
- Preparing for natural disasters - household checklist (not county-specific advice).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Rosebud County?
The most common disaster type in Rosebud County is Fire, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (4), Biological (2), Straight-Line Winds (1).
How does Rosebud County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Montana average?
FEMA lists 15 declaration records for Rosebud County. That is 37% above the Montana county mean of 11.0. Its count is also 28% 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 Rosebud County received?
Rosebud County has received 10 major disaster declarations, representing 67% of all 15 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Rosebud County filed?
Rosebud County has 12 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $15.5K in payments, with an average of $1.3K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Rosebud County?
No. In Rosebud County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $4.4M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Rosebud County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Rosebud County was 2020, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1978 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Rosebud County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Rosebud County, Montana has an overall risk score of 49.7 out of 100 (Relatively Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Very High and community resilience is Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $8.7M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Rosebud County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Rosebud County as of the latest release is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Winter Weather (Relatively Moderate) and Cold Wave (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 191 years. These scores are based on FEMA's analysis of historical event frequency, 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 Rosebud County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Montana profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events