Sweet Grass County, Montana: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Sweet Grass County, Montana has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 8.1 out of 100, higher than about 8% of US counties, with wildfires, avalanches and landslides scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $5.9 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 8 federal disaster declarations that included Sweet Grass County since 1997, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4902-MT (Severe Winter Storm and Straight-Line Winds, declared 7 April 2026). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 2 tornadoes touching Sweet Grass County from 1950 to 2025.
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Population 3,674 Buildings worth $2.3 billion Area 1,881 sq mi Risk rank in Montana 41 of 56 FIPS 30097
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 | 88.1 | $1.5 million | about once every 806 years | — |
| Avalanche | Very Low | 60.7 | $2,236 | about once every 7.5 years | 4 |
| Landslide | Very Low | 56.3 | $2,980 | about 2.3 a year | — |
| Earthquake | Very Low | 34.9 | $156,824 | about once every 203 years | — |
| Winter weather | Relatively Low | 32.1 | $46,400 | about 23 a year | 431 |
| Cold wave | Relatively Low | 29.8 | $577,849 | about 2.4 a year | 46 |
| Hail | Very Low | 21.4 | $108,911 | about 1.3 a year | 50 |
| Inland flooding | Very Low | 19.7 | $3.4 million | about once every 2.5 years | 11 |
| Lightning | Very Low | 18.3 | $87,560 | about 36 a year | 42,714 strikes |
| Drought | Very Low | 18.2 | $3,512 | about 66 a year | 1,659 |
| Heat wave | Very Low | 6.6 | $12,622 | about once every 1.3 years | 7.5 |
| Ice storm | Very Low | 4.0 | $2,311 | about once every 67 years | 0 |
| Tornado | Very Low | 3.8 | $16,491 | about once every 16 years | 0 |
| Strong wind | Very Low | 3.3 | $25,361 | about once every 1.7 years | 23 |
| Volcanic activity | No Rating | 0.0 | — | rarer than once in 1,000 years | 1 |
| Coastal flooding | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Hurricane | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Tsunami | 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 8
Most common: Fire 3, Severe Storm 2, Straight-Line Winds 1, Flood 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 1 | Severe Storm |
| 2000s | 4 | Fire ×3, Hurricane |
| 2010s | 1 | Severe Storm |
| 2020s | 2 | Straight-Line Winds, Flood |
The last 8
Widest declarations that included Sweet Grass 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 2
| Tornadoes touching the county | 2 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F1 ×1 |
| Peak month | May (1) |
| Deadliest | — |
| Longest path | 22 Aug 1965, F1, 1.5 mi path |
| Most recent | 20 May 1973, F0, 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 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 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 Sweet Grass County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sweet Grass County (this page) | — | Very Low | 8.1 | Wildfire |
| Stillwater County | 45 km | Very Low | 16.8 | Wildfire |
| Park County | 58 km | Relatively Low | 66.3 | Avalanche |
| Wheatland County | 73 km | Very Low | 3.5 | Wildfire |
| Golden Valley County | 86 km | Very Low | 1.0 | Wildfire |
| Carbon County | 97 km | Relatively Low | 59.8 | Landslide |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Montana, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Very Low 10.6 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Relatively Moderate 54.4 |
| Community risk factor | 0.74 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $5.9 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 Sweet Grass 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
- Avalanche: Official warnings now
- Landslide: Landslides recorded
- 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 Sweet Grass County
What natural disasters is Sweet Grass County, Montana most at risk from?
Sweet Grass County, Montana has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 8.1 out of 100, higher than about 8% of US counties, with wildfires, avalanches and landslides scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $5.9 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Sweet Grass County had?
OpenFEMA lists 8 federal disaster declarations that included Sweet Grass County since 1997, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4902-MT (Severe Winter Storm and Straight-Line Winds, declared 7 April 2026). Another 18 Montana declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Sweet Grass County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 2 tornadoes touching Sweet Grass 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.