Carter County, Montana: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Carter County, Montana has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 1.7 out of 100, higher than about 1% of US counties, with wildfires, winter storms and cold waves scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $2.3 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 6 federal disaster declarations that included Carter County since 2000, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4198-MT (Severe Storms, Straight-Line Winds, and Flooding, declared 9 October 2014). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 18 tornadoes touching Carter County from 1950 to 2025.
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Population 1,400 Buildings worth $946 million Area 3,382 sq mi Risk rank in Montana 53 of 56 FIPS 30011
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | 73.8 | $310,870 | about once every 269 years | — |
| Winter weather | Relatively Low | 44.7 | $71,275 | about 2 a year | 373 |
| Cold wave | Relatively Low | 39.3 | $852,216 | about 7.4 a year | 141 |
| Landslide | Very Low | 28.0 | $344 | about once a year | — |
| Hail | Very Low | 22.6 | $109,338 | about 2.5 a year | 96 |
| Drought | Very Low | 19.1 | $4,374 | about 7 a year | 1,771 |
| Earthquake | Very Low | 12.3 | $16,401 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | — |
| Heat wave | Very Low | 7.8 | $15,761 | about 1.8 a year | 20 |
| Tornado | Very Low | 7.6 | $53,311 | about once every 2.5 years | 13 |
| Ice storm | Very Low | 5.9 | $3,798 | about once every 19 years | 3 |
| Strong wind | Very Low | 4.5 | $40,451 | about 1.4 a year | 53 |
| Inland flooding | Very Low | 4.1 | $833,817 | about once every 2.5 years | 11 |
| Lightning | Very Low | 2.7 | $12,254 | about 35 a year | 33,721 strikes |
| Avalanche | Very Low | 0.4 | — | about once every 100 years | 0 |
| Coastal flooding | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Hurricane | 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 6
Most common: Severe Storm 4, Hurricane 1, Fire 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 2000s | 4 | Severe Storm ×2, Hurricane, Fire |
| 2010s | 2 | Severe Storm ×2 |
The last 6
Widest declarations that included Carter County
- Hurricane Katrina Evacuation (2005, EM-3253-MT): 56 Montana counties designated.
- Severe Storms and Flooding (2011, DR-1996-MT): 49 Montana counties designated.
- Wildfires (2000, DR-1340-MT): 48 Montana 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. Montana also had 18 statewide declarations with no county list.
Tornado record since 1950 18
| Tornadoes touching the county | 18 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F3 ×1 |
| Peak month | June (9) |
| Deadliest | — |
| Longest path | 6 Jun 2005, F0, 30 mi path |
| Most recent | 19 Jul 2019, EF1, 0.5 mi path |
| Deaths / injuries on those paths | 0 / 0 |
| Rating | (E)F0 | (E)F1 | (E)F2 | (E)F3 | (E)F4 | (E)F5 | Unrated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 9 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 0 |
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 Carter County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carter County (this page) | — | Very Low | 1.7 | Wildfire |
| Harding County, SD | 81 km | Very Low | 1.5 | Wildfire |
| Powder River County | 86 km | Very Low | 4.0 | Wildfire |
| Fallon County | 91 km | Very Low | 5.4 | Cold wave |
| Bowman County, ND | 103 km | Very Low | 2.1 | Winter weather |
| Crook County, WY | 103 km | Very Low | 16.1 | Wildfire |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Montana, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Very Low 10.6 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Very Low 5.1 |
| Community risk factor | 0.79 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $2.3 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 Carter County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Montana · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Wildfire: US wildfires now · Wildfire smoke: what protects you
- Winter weather: Power outages now · Carbon monoxide in winter
- Cold wave: Carbon monoxide in winter · Power outages 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 Carter County
What natural disasters is Carter County, Montana most at risk from?
Carter County, Montana has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 1.7 out of 100, higher than about 1% of US counties, with wildfires, winter storms and cold waves scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $2.3 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Carter County had?
OpenFEMA lists 6 federal disaster declarations that included Carter County since 2000, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4198-MT (Severe Storms, Straight-Line Winds, and Flooding, declared 9 October 2014). Another 18 Montana declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Carter County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 18 tornadoes touching Carter County from 1950 to 2025.
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.