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FEMA tornado disaster declarations

Incident type "Tornado" · 182 declarations · 33 states and territories

FEMA has made 182 state declarations with incident type "Tornado" since 1953: 163 major disasters, 19 emergencies. Arkansas has had the most (18). The busiest year was 1975 (11).

Declarations per year, 1953 to 2024

State declarations per calendar year of the declaration date.

Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries (v2), through October 2, 2026: one declaration per disaster number and state. OpenFEMA dataset page.

Which states have the most tornado declarations?

  1. Arkansas 18
  2. Texas 15
  3. Oklahoma 13
  4. Georgia 13
  5. Mississippi 12
  6. Illinois 11
  7. Ohio 8
  8. Tennessee 8
  9. Kentucky 7
  10. Alabama 7
  11. Nebraska 6
  12. Wisconsin 6
  13. Kansas 6
  14. Michigan 6
  15. Iowa 5

Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries (v2).

The counties named in the most tornado declarations

  1. Lonoke County, AR 6
  2. Breckinridge County, KY 5
  3. Davidson County, TN 5
  4. Decatur County, TN 5
  5. Okmulgee County, OK 5
  6. Pottawatomie County, OK 5
  7. Champaign County, IL 4
  8. Cheatham County, TN 4
  9. Cotton County, OK 4
  10. Craighead County, AR 4
  11. Dickson County, TN 4
  12. Faulkner County, AR 4

Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries (v2): distinct declarations that name the county.

The most recent tornado declarations

The 15 most recent
DeclaredNumberStateTitleAreas named
2024-05-14DR-4779IowaSevere Storms and Tornadoes9
2024-05-03DR-4778NebraskaSevere Storms, Straight-Line Winds, and Tornadoes6
2024-05-02DR-4777OhioTornadoes11
2024-04-30DR-4776OklahomaSevere Storms, Straight-Line Winds, Tornadoes, and Flooding25
2023-04-24DR-4706OklahomaSevere Storms, Straight-Line Winds, and Tornadoes3
2022-01-14DR-4637TennesseeSevere Storms, Straight-Line Winds, and Tornadoes14
2021-12-23DR-4633ArkansasSevere Storms and Tornadoes5
2021-12-13EM-3576TennesseeSevere Storms, Straight-Line Winds, and Tornadoes9
2021-12-13EM-3577IllinoisSevere Storms, Straight-Line Winds, and Tornadoes14
2021-12-12DR-4630KentuckySevere Storms, Straight-Line Winds, Flooding, and Tornadoes23
2021-12-11EM-3575KentuckySevere Storms, Straight-Line Winds, Flooding, and Tornadoes16
2021-05-08DR-4601TennesseeSevere Storms, Tornadoes, and Flooding24
2020-07-10DR-4556ArkansasSevere Storms and Straight-Line Winds12
2020-05-08DR-4544ArkansasSevere Storms, Tornadoes, and Straight-Line Winds1
2020-03-05DR-4476TennesseeSevere Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-Line Winds, and Flooding6

Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries (v2), through October 2, 2026. OpenFEMA dataset page.

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