Brown County, Nebraska: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Brown County, Nebraska has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 2.4 out of 100, higher than about 2% of US counties, with drought, hail and wildfires scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $2.7 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 9 federal disaster declarations that included Brown County since 1967, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4420-NE (Severe Winter Storm, Straight-Line Winds, and Flooding, declared 21 March 2019). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 38 tornadoes touching Brown County from 1950 to 2025.
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Population 2,898 Buildings worth $1.1 billion Area 1,238 sq mi Risk rank in Nebraska 78 of 93 FIPS 31017
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 Moderate | 67.9 | $547,575 | about 42 a year | 1,064 |
| Hail | Relatively Low | 62.0 | $488,846 | about 5 a year | 191 |
| Wildfire | Very Low | 58.5 | $91,505 | about once every 787 years | — |
| Winter weather | Relatively Low | 37.2 | $48,625 | about 17 a year | 329 |
| Cold wave | Relatively Low | 31.8 | $550,192 | about 6.6 a year | 126 |
| Landslide | Very Low | 20.2 | $144 | about once every 1.9 years | — |
| Tornado | Very Low | 19.3 | $266,660 | about once every 2.2 years | 25 |
| Ice storm | Very Low | 15.6 | $11,993 | about once every 7.5 years | 9 |
| Strong wind | Very Low | 14.2 | $138,329 | about 1.7 a year | 65 |
| Heat wave | Very Low | 13.1 | $34,643 | about 4 a year | 65 |
| Earthquake | Very Low | 10.9 | $12,932 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | — |
| Lightning | Very Low | 7.1 | $26,945 | about 41 a year | 25,591 strikes |
| Inland flooding | Very Low | 2.3 | $497,596 | about once every 3.5 years | 8 |
| 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 9
Most common: Severe Storm 6, Flood 2, Hurricane 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1960s | 1 | Flood |
| 2000s | 5 | Severe Storm ×4, Hurricane |
| 2010s | 3 | Severe Storm ×2, Flood |
The last 9
Widest declarations that included Brown County
- Hurricane Katrina Evacuees (2005, EM-3245-NE): 93 Nebraska counties designated.
- Severe Winter Storm, Straight-Line Winds, and Flooding (2019, DR-4420-NE): 84 Nebraska counties designated.
- Severe Storms, Tornadoes, and Flooding (2008, DR-1770-NE): 62 Nebraska 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. Nebraska also had 6 statewide declarations with no county list.
Tornado record since 1950 38
| Tornadoes touching the county | 38 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F2 ×3 |
| Peak month | July (18) |
| Deadliest | 7 Jul 1979, F2, 11.1 mi path, 0 killed, 1 injured |
| Longest path | 24 Jul 2000, F1, 22 mi path |
| Most recent | 18 Jul 2025, unrated |
| Deaths / injuries on those paths | 0 / 1 |
| Rating | (E)F0 | (E)F1 | (E)F2 | (E)F3 | (E)F4 | (E)F5 | Unrated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 18 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 3 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 7 |
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 Brown County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brown County (this page) | — | Very Low | 2.4 | Drought |
| Rock County | 39 km | Very Low | 0.7 | Wildfire |
| Keya Paha County | 53 km | Very Low | 1.5 | Wildfire |
| Blaine County | 58 km | Very Low | 0.4 | Wildfire |
| Loup County | 70 km | Very Low | 0.3 | Hail |
| Thomas County | 77 km | Very Low | 0.2 | Wildfire |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Nebraska, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Very Low 17.8 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Relatively Low 34.0 |
| Community risk factor | 0.87 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $2.7 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 Brown County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Nebraska · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Drought: Drought monitor for Nebraska
- Hail: Weather alerts for Nebraska
- Wildfire: US wildfires now · Wildfire smoke: what protects you
- 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 Brown County
What natural disasters is Brown County, Nebraska most at risk from?
Brown County, Nebraska has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 2.4 out of 100, higher than about 2% of US counties, with drought, hail and wildfires scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $2.7 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Brown County had?
OpenFEMA lists 9 federal disaster declarations that included Brown County since 1967, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4420-NE (Severe Winter Storm, Straight-Line Winds, and Flooding, declared 21 March 2019). Another 6 Nebraska declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Brown County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 38 tornadoes touching Brown County from 1950 to 2025. The deadliest: 7 Jul 1979, F2, 11.1 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.