Prairie County, Montana: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Prairie County, Montana has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 4.2 out of 100, higher than about 4% of US counties, with cold waves, wildfires and winter storms scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $2.2 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 5 federal disaster declarations that included Prairie County since 1997, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4172-MT (Ice Jams and Flooding, declared 17 April 2014). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 3 tornadoes touching Prairie County from 1950 to 2025.
Live weather alerts for Montana All official warnings Latest FEMA declarations
Population 1,081 Buildings worth $660 million Area 1,760 sq mi Risk rank in Montana 47 of 56 FIPS 30079
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cold wave | Relatively Low | 64.2 | $1.3 million | about 12 a year | 227 |
| Wildfire | Very Low | 61.0 | $67,469 | about once every 379 years | — |
| Winter weather | Relatively Low | 24.6 | $17,020 | about 18 a year | 336 |
| Drought | Very Low | 23.1 | $6,206 | about 42 a year | 1,071 |
| Heat wave | Very Low | 18.6 | $40,165 | about 3 a year | 34 |
| Landslide | Very Low | 18.6 | $74 | about once every 1.3 years | — |
| Hail | Very Low | 16.2 | $41,901 | about 1.9 a year | 72 |
| Strong wind | Very Low | 8.9 | $47,705 | about 1.4 a year | 53 |
| Tornado | Very Low | 8.7 | $38,393 | about once every 6.6 years | 3 |
| Lightning | Very Low | 8.0 | $19,157 | about 29 a year | 20,711 strikes |
| Inland flooding | Very Low | 5.8 | $625,716 | about once every 1.3 years | 22 |
| Earthquake | Very Low | 5.3 | $3,981 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | — |
| Ice storm | Very Low | 2.3 | $669 | about once every 67 years | 0 |
| Avalanche | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| 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 5
Most common: Severe Storm 2, Flood 1, Hurricane 1, Fire 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 1 | Severe Storm |
| 2000s | 2 | Hurricane, Fire |
| 2010s | 2 | Flood, Severe Storm |
The last 5
Widest declarations that included Prairie 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 3
| Tornadoes touching the county | 3 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F2 ×1 |
| Peak month | July (2) |
| Deadliest | — |
| Longest path | 18 Jul 1962, F2, 40.6 mi path |
| Most recent | 20 May 2011, EF1, 0.1 mi path |
| Deaths / injuries on those paths | 0 / 0 |
| Rating | (E)F0 | (E)F1 | (E)F2 | (E)F3 | (E)F4 | (E)F5 | Unrated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 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 Prairie County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prairie County (this page) | — | Very Low | 4.2 | Cold wave |
| Dawson County | 58 km | Relatively Low | 63.8 | Cold wave |
| Custer County | 69 km | Very Low | 42.1 | Cold wave |
| Wibaux County | 87 km | Very Low | 11.1 | Cold wave |
| McCone County | 93 km | Very Low | 5.2 | Cold wave |
| Fallon County | 94 km | Very Low | 5.4 | Cold wave |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Montana, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Relatively High 74.1 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Very Low 19.5 |
| Community risk factor | 1.40 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $2.2 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 Prairie County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Montana · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Cold wave: Carbon monoxide in winter · Power outages now
- Wildfire: US wildfires now · Wildfire smoke: what protects you
- Winter weather: Power outages now · Carbon monoxide in winter
- 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 Prairie County
What natural disasters is Prairie County, Montana most at risk from?
Prairie County, Montana has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 4.2 out of 100, higher than about 4% of US counties, with cold waves, wildfires and winter storms scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $2.2 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Prairie County had?
OpenFEMA lists 5 federal disaster declarations that included Prairie County since 1997, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4172-MT (Ice Jams and Flooding, declared 17 April 2014). Another 18 Montana declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Prairie County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 3 tornadoes touching Prairie 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.