Queen Anne's County, Maryland: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Queen Anne's County, Maryland has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 35.6 out of 100, higher than about 35% of US counties, with drought, hurricanes and coastal flooding scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $13 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 16 federal disaster declarations that included Queen Anne's County since 1977, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is EM-3634-MD (Severe Winter Storm, declared 24 January 2026). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 13 tornadoes touching Queen Anne's County from 1950 to 2025.
Live weather alerts for Maryland All official warnings Latest FEMA declarations
Population 49,839 Buildings worth $11 billion Area 516 sq mi Risk rank in Maryland 21 of 24 FIPS 24035
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drought | Relatively High | 92.5 | $2.2 million | about 5.3 a year | 161 |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | 78.5 | $1.8 million | about once every 11 years | 18 |
| Coastal flooding | Relatively Moderate | 67.2 | $1.0 million | about 3.7 a year | — |
| Winter weather | Relatively Moderate | 64.1 | $117,204 | about 7.6 a year | 145 |
| Wildfire | Very Low | 59.6 | $92,093 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | — |
| Heat wave | Relatively Low | 58.0 | $601,708 | about 5.6 a year | 88 |
| Earthquake | Very Low | 54.3 | $387,139 | about once every 763 years | — |
| Strong wind | Relatively Low | 48.5 | $592,680 | about 6.6 a year | 204 |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | 39.5 | $176,941 | about 36 a year | 46,577 strikes |
| Ice storm | Relatively Low | 37.0 | $51,674 | about once every 1.7 years | 33 |
| Inland flooding | Very Low | 34.2 | $4.5 million | about 1.2 a year | 33 |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | 33.2 | $691,310 | about once every 3.2 years | 11 |
| Hail | Very Low | 29.9 | $132,549 | about 2.6 a year | 109 |
| Cold wave | Relatively Low | 23.9 | $337,774 | about once every 1.3 years | 15 |
| Landslide | Very Low | 19.8 | $127 | about once every 16 years | — |
| Avalanche | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Tsunami | Insufficient Data | — | — | — | — |
| 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 16
Most common: Hurricane 7, Snowstorm 6, Severe Storm 2, Winter Storm 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 1 | Snowstorm |
| 1990s | 3 | Snowstorm ×2, Hurricane |
| 2000s | 4 | Hurricane ×2, Severe Storm ×2 |
| 2010s | 7 | Hurricane ×4, Snowstorm ×3 |
| 2020s | 1 | Winter Storm |
The last 10
Widest declarations that included Queen Anne's County
- Severe Winter Storm (2026, EM-3634-MD): 24 Maryland counties designated.
- Hurricane Sandy (2012, DR-4091-MD): 24 Maryland counties designated.
- Hurricane Sandy (2012, EM-3349-MD): 24 Maryland counties designated.
Named storms in its declarations: Hurricane Sandy (2012), Hurricane Irene (2011), Hurricane Katrina (2005), Hurricane Isabel (2003), Hurricane Floyd (1999).
Not counted above: 2 COVID-19 ("Biological") declarations — in 2020 every US county was included. Maryland also had 1 statewide declaration with no county list.
Tornado record since 1950 13
| Tornadoes touching the county | 13 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F2 ×3 |
| Peak month | August (4) |
| Deadliest | 23 Jul 2017, EF2, 2.4 mi path, 0 killed, 1 injured |
| Longest path | 30 Jul 1971, F2, 8.3 mi path |
| Most recent | 4 Aug 2020, EF0, 0.7 mi path |
| Deaths / injuries on those paths | 0 / 1 |
| Rating | (E)F0 | (E)F1 | (E)F2 | (E)F3 | (E)F4 | (E)F5 | Unrated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 6 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
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 Queen Anne's County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Queen Anne's County (this page) | — | Very Low | 35.6 | Drought |
| Kent County | 21 km | Very Low | 27.5 | Drought |
| Caroline County | 27 km | Relatively Low | 45.7 | Drought |
| Talbot County | 34 km | Very Low | 42.4 | Drought |
| Kent County, DE | 38 km | Relatively Moderate | 84.5 | Cold wave |
| Anne Arundel County | 52 km | Relatively Moderate | 81.9 | Winter weather |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Maryland, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Relatively Low 25.6 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Very High 90.4 |
| Community risk factor | 0.93 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $13 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 Queen Anne's County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Maryland · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Drought: Drought monitor for Maryland
- Hurricane: Is there a hurricane now? · Cyclone preparation
- Coastal flooding: Flood safety: why shallow water kills · Hurricanes and storms now
- 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 Queen Anne's County
What natural disasters is Queen Anne's County, Maryland most at risk from?
Queen Anne's County, Maryland has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 35.6 out of 100, higher than about 35% of US counties, with drought, hurricanes and coastal flooding scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $13 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Queen Anne's County had?
OpenFEMA lists 16 federal disaster declarations that included Queen Anne's County since 1977, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is EM-3634-MD (Severe Winter Storm, declared 24 January 2026). Another 1 Maryland declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Queen Anne's County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 13 tornadoes touching Queen Anne's County from 1950 to 2025. The deadliest: 23 Jul 2017, EF2, 2.4 mi path, 0 killed, 1 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.