Churchill County, Nevada: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Churchill County, Nevada has a Relatively Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 47.3 out of 100, higher than about 47% of US counties, with earthquakes, volcanic activity and drought scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $16 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 5 federal disaster declarations that included Churchill County since 1997, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4307-NV (Severe Winter Storms, Flooding, and Mudslides, declared 27 March 2017). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 4 tornadoes touching Churchill County from 1950 to 2025.
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Population 25,502 Buildings worth $5.8 billion Area 5,075 sq mi Risk rank in Nevada 8 of 17 FIPS 32001
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | 91.3 | $6.7 million | about once every 29 years | — |
| Volcanic activity | Relatively Low | 86.6 | $3,946 | about once every 769 years | 4 |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 76.8 | $792,641 | about 144 a year | 3,885 |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | 64.5 | $120,801 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | — |
| Winter weather | Relatively Low | 54.2 | $76,763 | about 7.3 a year | 139 |
| Inland flooding | Relatively Low | 53.2 | $7.5 million | about once every 4.7 years | 6 |
| Avalanche | Very Low | 43.3 | $331 | about once every 100 years | 0 |
| Landslide | Very Low | 39.3 | $645 | about 5 a year | — |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | 26.0 | $95,392 | about 18 a year | 25,186 strikes |
| Ice storm | Very Low | 26.0 | $25,741 | about once every 67 years | 0 |
| Heat wave | Very Low | 25.0 | $99,819 | about 4.6 a year | 68 |
| Strong wind | Very Low | 10.6 | $80,917 | about once every 7.9 years | 5 |
| Hail | Very Low | 8.9 | $27,249 | about once every 20 years | 1.9 |
| Cold wave | Very Low | 2.7 | $2 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | 0 |
| Tornado | Very Low | 1.7 | $1,963 | about once every 11 years | 3 |
| 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 5
Most common: Severe Storm 2, Snowstorm 2, Hurricane 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 1 | Severe Storm |
| 2000s | 3 | Snowstorm ×2, Hurricane |
| 2010s | 1 | Severe Storm |
The last 5
Widest declarations that included Churchill County
- Hurricane Katrina Evacuation (2005, EM-3243-NV): 17 Nevada counties designated.
- Snow (2005, EM-3204-NV): 16 Nevada counties designated.
- Record and/Or Near Record Snow (2005, EM-3202-NV): 15 Nevada 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. Nevada also had 19 statewide declarations with no county list.
Tornado record since 1950 4
| Tornadoes touching the county | 4 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F0 ×4 |
| Peak month | May (3) |
| Deadliest | — |
| Longest path | 17 May 1987, F0, 3 mi path |
| Most recent | 14 Jun 1997, 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 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 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 Churchill County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Churchill County (this page) | — | Relatively Low | 47.3 | Earthquake |
| Pershing County | 96 km | Very Low | 6.0 | Wildfire |
| Lyon County | 96 km | Relatively Low | 71.4 | Wildfire |
| Storey County | 103 km | Very Low | 25.2 | Wildfire |
| Mineral County | 116 km | Very Low | 9.8 | Earthquake |
| Lander County | 118 km | Very Low | 17.0 | Wildfire |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Nevada, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Relatively Low 31.7 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Very Low 11.3 |
| Community risk factor | 1.01 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $16 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 Churchill County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Nevada · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Earthquake: Earthquakes today · Earthquake safety guide
- Volcanic activity: US volcano alerts
- Drought: Drought monitor for Nevada
- 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 Churchill County
What natural disasters is Churchill County, Nevada most at risk from?
Churchill County, Nevada has a Relatively Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 47.3 out of 100, higher than about 47% of US counties, with earthquakes, volcanic activity and drought scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $16 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Churchill County had?
OpenFEMA lists 5 federal disaster declarations that included Churchill County since 1997, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4307-NV (Severe Winter Storms, Flooding, and Mudslides, declared 27 March 2017). Another 19 Nevada declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Churchill County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 4 tornadoes touching Churchill 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.