FEMA disaster type · OpenFEMA declarations
Severe Ice Storm disasters in the United States
FEMA disaster declarations classified as "Severe Ice Storm" from 1968 to 2025 - which states are hit most often and how the count has changed over time.
- 75
- FEMA declarations
- 28
- States affected
- 1968
- Earliest year
- 2025
- Latest year
The verdict
According to FEMA's disaster declaration history, severe ice storm ranks #8 of the 27 distinct disaster types the agency has declared, accounting for 1.4% of all 5,218 declarations on record. It is declared more often than 73% of the other declaration types FEMA tracks, based on total historical volume.
- #8 of 27
- FEMA disaster types, by declaration volume
- 1.4%
- share of all 5,218 FEMA declarations
- 75
- severe ice storm declarations, 1968–2025
Ranking reflects the count of Presidentially declared federal disasters per OpenFEMA, not event severity or economic loss; a rare declaration type can still be individually catastrophic.
How does Severe Ice Storm compare?
Severe Ice Storm vs. every FEMA declaration type
Declaration volume across all tracked incident types
75 Top 30% higher than 70% of 27 disaster types
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more disaster types. 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 OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 · 2026-08-03
What shapes the severe ice storm record?
States with the most severe ice storm declarations
Wider bars = more FEMA declarations of this type
- Oklahoma
Oklahoma
12 declarations
- Arkansas
Arkansas
6 declarations
- Missouri
Missouri
6 declarations
- South Carolina
South Carolina
5 declarations
- North Carolina 4
North Carolina
4 declarations
- Tennessee 4
Tennessee
4 declarations
- Georgia 3
Georgia
3 declarations
- Kentucky 3
Kentucky
3 declarations
- Louisiana 3
Louisiana
3 declarations
- Texas 3
Texas
3 declarations
What this shows Oklahoma leads with 12 severe ice storm declarations among the states shown.
Severe Ice Storm declarations by year
Federal declaration cadence for this incident type across the OpenFEMA record.
Peak year in this series: 2021 (12 declarations). A declaration is a federal assistance trigger, not a raw event count.
How common are Severe Ice Storm disasters in the U.S.?
FEMA has issued 75 federal disaster declarations classified as severe ice storm between 1968 and 2025, affecting 28 states and territories. Each declaration represents a formal federal recognition that an event exceeded state and local response capacity, unlocking Public Assistance, Individual Assistance, or Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding depending on the declaration class (DR, EM, or FM). Raw declaration counts therefore measure the federal response footprint, which is a lagging and thresholded indicator: smaller events handled entirely at the state level never appear, and declaration thresholds have been recalibrated over the dataset's multi-decade history.
Annual declaration counts move in fits and starts rather than a smooth trend. The peak year on record was 2021, with 12 severe ice storm declarations issued that single year, a clustering driven by major multi-state events and the federal government's declaration cadence. The most recent year on record is 2025, with 1 declarations. Trends over the 57+ year history reflect a mix of policy recalibration and genuine year-to-year hazard variability.
Where these declarations land varies widely by state. The three states with the most severe ice storm declarations on record are OK (12 declarations), AR (6 declarations), MO (6 declarations), largely explained by regional exposure rather than population size alone. States with the fewest declarations, including WA (1), WV (1), WY (1), a sign that most local events here never crossed the federal declaration threshold.
Which federal declaration does severe ice storm actually get?
This is a conventional Major Disaster type: 81% of its 75 declarations are DRs, with 19% filed as Emergencies. A DR is the instrument that opens the widest set of programs -- Public Assistance for damaged infrastructure, Individual Assistance for households, and Hazard Mitigation funding intended to reduce the next event's cost. The concentration means these events are typically declared after damage has been assessed, not while they are still developing.
Declarations by State
| # | State | Declarations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oklahoma OK | 12 |
| 2 | Arkansas AR | 6 |
| 3 | Missouri MO | 6 |
| 4 | South Carolina SC | 5 |
| 5 | North Carolina NC | 4 |
| 6 | Tennessee TN | 4 |
| 7 | Georgia GA | 3 |
| 8 | Kentucky KY | 3 |
| 9 | Louisiana LA | 3 |
| 10 | Texas TX | 3 |
| 11 | Iowa IA | 2 |
| 12 | Illinois IL | 2 |
| 13 | Kansas KS | 2 |
| 14 | Minnesota MN | 2 |
| 15 | Mississippi MS | 2 |
| 16 | Nebraska NE | 2 |
| 17 | New York NY | 2 |
| 18 | Vermont VT | 2 |
| 19 | Indiana IN | 1 |
| 20 | Massachusetts MA | 1 |
| 21 | Michigan MI | 1 |
| 22 | New Hampshire NH | 1 |
| 23 | New Jersey NJ | 1 |
| 24 | Pennsylvania PA | 1 |
| 25 | Virginia VA | 1 |
| 26 | Washington WA | 1 |
| 27 | West Virginia WV | 1 |
| 28 | Wyoming WY | 1 |
Declarations by Year
| Year | Declarations |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 |
| 2021 | 12 |
| 2017 | 1 |
| 2016 | 1 |
| 2015 | 2 |
| 2014 | 9 |
| 2013 | 1 |
| 2010 | 1 |
| 2009 | 8 |
| 2008 | 7 |
| 2007 | 3 |
| 2006 | 1 |
| 2004 | 1 |
| 2003 | 6 |
| 2002 | 3 |
| 2001 | 6 |
| 1999 | 3 |
| 1997 | 1 |
| 1992 | 2 |
| 1991 | 1 |
| 1990 | 1 |
| 1977 | 1 |
| 1976 | 2 |
| 1968 | 1 |
Recent Severe Ice Storm Declarations
Download all 75 declarations as CSV . Source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0. The table below lists the 30 most recent; the file carries every one.
| DR# | Title | State | Type | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4880 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | MI | DR | 2025-07-22 |
| 4603 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | WV | DR | 2021-05-13 |
| 4602 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | VA | DR | 2021-05-10 |
| 4598 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | MS | DR | 2021-05-04 |
| 4594 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | TN | DR | 2021-04-21 |
| 4592 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | KY | DR | 2021-03-31 |
| 4590 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | LA | DR | 2021-03-09 |
| 4587 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | OK | DR | 2021-02-24 |
| 4586 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | TX | DR | 2021-02-19 |
| 3556 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | LA | EM | 2021-02-18 |
| 3555 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | OK | EM | 2021-02-17 |
| 3554 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | TX | EM | 2021-02-14 |
| 4575 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | OK | DR | 2020-12-21 |
| 4304 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | KS | DR | 2017-02-24 |
| 4247 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND FLOODING | OK | DR | 2015-12-29 |
| 4215 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | GA | DR | 2015-04-20 |
| 4211 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND FLOODING | TN | DR | 2015-04-02 |
| 4171 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | TN | DR | 2014-04-11 |
| 4167 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | NC | DR | 2014-03-31 |
| 4166 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | SC | DR | 2014-03-12 |
| 4165 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | GA | DR | 2014-03-06 |
| 3369 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | SC | EM | 2014-02-12 |
| 3368 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | GA | EM | 2014-02-11 |
| 3367 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | PA | EM | 2014-02-06 |
| 4163 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | VT | DR | 2014-01-29 |
| 4160 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | AR | DR | 2014-01-06 |
| 4100 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | AR | DR | 2013-01-29 |
| 1883 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | OK | DR | 2010-03-05 |
| 1821 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND FLOODING | TN | DR | 2009-02-17 |
| 1818 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND FLOODING | KY | DR | 2009-02-05 |
What this means for Severe Ice Storm declarations
Severe Ice Storm is declared more often than 73% of the other declaration types FEMA tracks, with 75 FEMA declaration records; Oklahoma leads with 12.
- Oklahoma accounts for the largest share of severe ice storm declarations in this corpus. Oklahoma profile
- See how states compare on raw FEMA declaration volume across all incident types. Most disasters ranking
- Learn what a FEMA declaration does and does not measure relative to NOAA storm events. Disaster-data guide
A federal declaration is a legal assistance trigger, not a count of every storm event or a forecast. For current threats follow the National Weather Service and local officials; in an emergency call 911.
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Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 For informational purposes only
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Verify declarations with FEMA → Verify storm-event context with NOAA →
Every figure on PlainHazard is rendered directly from FEMA federal disaster data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or national statistics report, the data & editorial changelog, or report a data error.