Montgomery County, Illinois: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Montgomery County, Illinois has a Relatively Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 65.4 out of 100, higher than about 65% of US counties, with earthquakes, strong winds and drought scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $22 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 5 federal disaster declarations that included Montgomery County since 2002, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is EM-3577-IL (Severe Storms, Straight-Line Winds, and Tornadoes, declared 13 December 2021). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 51 tornadoes touching Montgomery County from 1950 to 2025.
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Population 28,277 Buildings worth $10 billion Area 717 sq mi Risk rank in Illinois 40 of 102 FIPS 17135
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | 90.4 | $5.0 million | about once every 225 years | — |
| Strong wind | Relatively High | 84.4 | $1.4 million | about 5.8 a year | 220 |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 79.9 | $836,764 | about 1.7 a year | 42 |
| Heat wave | Relatively Moderate | 79.4 | $1.3 million | about 9.4 a year | 123 |
| Cold wave | Relatively Moderate | 75.3 | $2.4 million | about 2.3 a year | 43 |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | 74.8 | $621,621 | about 4 a year | 154 |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | 71.5 | $2.4 million | about once every 1.4 years | 44 |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | 70.5 | $5,587 | about once every 3.7 years | — |
| Inland flooding | Relatively Low | 58.7 | $7.7 million | about once every 1.3 years | 21 |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | 56.8 | $269,926 | about 49 a year | 150,366 strikes |
| Winter weather | Relatively Low | 54.3 | $66,676 | about 8.4 a year | 160 |
| Hurricane | Very Low | 42.1 | $31,694 | about once every 59 years | 6 |
| Ice storm | Relatively Low | 37.6 | $42,165 | about 1.2 a year | 80 |
| Wildfire | Very Low | 13.6 | $4,111 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | — |
| Avalanche | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Coastal flooding | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Tsunami | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Volcanic activity | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
Score: FEMA's percentile among US counties that face the hazard (higher = more risk). Expected loss: FEMA's modelled average yearly loss to buildings, people (as a statistical value) and crops. How often: FEMA's annualised frequency of the hazard in the county; for some hazards it counts event-days, so it is a rough guide, not a forecast. "Not Applicable" means FEMA does not model that hazard here.
Federal disaster declarations 5
Most common: Tornado 2, Severe Storm 1, Severe Ice Storm 1, Hurricane 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 2000s | 4 | Severe Storm, Severe Ice Storm, Hurricane, Tornado |
| 2020s | 1 | Tornado |
The last 5
Widest declarations that included Montgomery County
- Hurricane Katrina Evacuation (2005, EM-3230-IL): 102 Illinois counties designated.
- Severe Storms, Tornadoes and Flooding (2002, DR-1416-IL): 68 Illinois counties designated.
- Severe Winter Storm (2007, DR-1681-IL): 18 Illinois counties designated.
Named storms in its declarations: Hurricane Katrina (2005).
Not counted above: 2 COVID-19 ("Biological") declarations — in 2020 every US county was included. Illinois also had 2 statewide declarations with no county list.
Tornado record since 1950 51
| Tornadoes touching the county | 51 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F3 ×4 |
| Peak month | April (14) |
| Deadliest | 28 Apr 1956, F1, 4.7 mi path, 2 killed, 0 injured |
| Longest path | 6 Mar 1961, F1, 117.9 mi path, 0 killed, 1 injured |
| Most recent | 31 Mar 2023, EF0, 6.3 mi path |
| Deaths / injuries on those paths | 3 / 26 |
| Rating | (E)F0 | (E)F1 | (E)F2 | (E)F3 | (E)F4 | (E)F5 | Unrated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 19 | 14 | 12 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 6 | 14 | 8 |
Deaths and injuries are for each tornado's whole path, which can run beyond this county. F-scale ratings before February 2007, Enhanced Fujita (EF) after.
How Montgomery County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Montgomery County (this page) | — | Relatively Low | 65.4 | Earthquake |
| Bond County | 38 km | Very Low | 36.2 | Earthquake |
| Macoupin County | 39 km | Relatively Low | 79.9 | Earthquake |
| Christian County | 39 km | Relatively Low | 54.0 | Drought |
| Fayette County | 47 km | Relatively Low | 48.8 | Earthquake |
| Madison County | 58 km | Relatively Moderate | 93.4 | Heat wave |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Illinois, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Relatively Moderate 55.4 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Relatively High 76.2 |
| Community risk factor | 1.16 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $22 million |
FEMA scales expected losses up where social vulnerability is high (people who may find it harder to prepare, evacuate or recover) and down where community resilience is high. A factor above 1 raises the risk score. For social vulnerability a high rating is worse; for resilience a high rating is better.
Prepare for Montgomery County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Illinois · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Earthquake: Earthquakes today · Earthquake safety guide
- Strong wind: Power outages now
- Drought: Drought monitor for Illinois
- Your property's flood zone: FEMA Flood Map Service Center ↗ — this page cannot tell you that.
- Official preparedness guidance: Ready.gov ↗ and your county emergency management office.
What this page shows, and what it misses
FEMA's National Risk Index rates a whole county against every other US county; it is a planning-level estimate for nationwide comparison, not a flood-zone map and not a substitute for a local risk assessment or the risk to one home. Declarations are presidential disaster, emergency and fire management declarations that named this county; state declarations and SBA or USDA designations are not included. Tornadoes are counted when the county is one of up to four listed on the track; 670 tornadoes that crossed a state line carry no county list in NOAA's file and are left out.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Risk Index Dataset: National Risk Index Counties - v1.20.0 (December 2025). Retrieved from https://services.arcgis.com/XG15cJAlne2vxtgt/ArcGIS/rest/services/National_Risk_Index_Counties/FeatureServer/0/query on November 2, 2026, 1:20 PM EST. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Risk Index dataset API or downloadable datasets but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), OpenFEMA Dataset: Disaster Declarations Summaries - v2, retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/api/open/v2/DisasterDeclarationsSummaries on November 2, 2026, 1:21 PM EST. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).
Tornado records: NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center, Severe Weather Database, tornadoes 1950–2025 (https://www.spc.noaa.gov/wcm/data/1950-2025_actual_tornadoes.csv, downloaded 2 November 2026). Public domain; not endorsed by NOAA. Compiled by Global Incident Tracker.
Questions about Montgomery County
What natural disasters is Montgomery County, Illinois most at risk from?
Montgomery County, Illinois has a Relatively Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 65.4 out of 100, higher than about 65% of US counties, with earthquakes, strong winds and drought scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $22 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Montgomery County had?
OpenFEMA lists 5 federal disaster declarations that included Montgomery County since 2002, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is EM-3577-IL (Severe Storms, Straight-Line Winds, and Tornadoes, declared 13 December 2021). Another 2 Illinois declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Montgomery County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 51 tornadoes touching Montgomery County from 1950 to 2025. The deadliest: 28 Apr 1956, F1, 4.7 mi path, 2 killed, 0 injured (deaths and injuries are for the whole path).
Is the National Risk Index a flood zone map?
No. The National Risk Index is a planning-level estimate for a whole county, built for nationwide comparison. It does not tell you the flood zone or the risk of a single property: for that, look up the address on FEMA's Flood Map Service Center (msc.fema.gov) and ask your local floodplain manager.