Pershing County, Nevada: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Pershing County, Nevada has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 6.0 out of 100, higher than about 6% of US counties, with wildfires, drought and earthquakes scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $2.3 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 2 federal disaster declarations that included Pershing County since 2005, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is EM-3243-NV (Hurricane Katrina Evacuation, declared 13 September 2005). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has no tornado on record touching Pershing County from 1950 to 2025.
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Population 6,601 Buildings worth $1.1 billion Area 6,129 sq mi Risk rank in Nevada 15 of 17 FIPS 32027
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 | 87.3 | $629,680 | about once every 170 years | — |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 76.7 | $521,662 | about 163 a year | 4,109 |
| Earthquake | Very Low | 55.2 | $247,276 | about once every 41 years | — |
| Landslide | Very Low | 53.9 | $1,221 | about 3.4 a year | — |
| Avalanche | Very Low | 47.7 | $308 | about once every 100 years | 0 |
| Heat wave | Very Low | 32.3 | $104,626 | about 4.6 a year | 68 |
| Volcanic activity | Very Low | 31.3 | $2 | about once every 909 years | 2 |
| Winter weather | Relatively Low | 25.7 | $16,420 | about 7.3 a year | 139 |
| Ice storm | Very Low | 15.4 | $6,649 | about once every 67 years | 0 |
| Lightning | Very Low | 11.2 | $25,948 | about 17 a year | 26,139 strikes |
| Inland flooding | Very Low | 7.5 | $718,418 | about once every 5.6 years | 5 |
| Cold wave | Very Low | 2.4 | — | rarer than once in 1,000 years | 0 |
| Strong wind | Very Low | 1.9 | $5,601 | about once every 8.8 years | 5 |
| Hail | Very Low | 1.4 | $1,070 | about once every 37 years | 1 |
| Tornado | Very Low | 1.2 | $547 | about once every 11 years | 0 |
| 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 2
Most common: Hurricane 1, Snowstorm 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 2000s | 2 | Hurricane, Snowstorm |
The last 2
Widest declarations that included Pershing County
- Hurricane Katrina Evacuation (2005, EM-3243-NV): 17 Nevada counties designated.
- Snow (2005, EM-3204-NV): 16 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 0
No tornado in NOAA's Storm Prediction Center record touched Pershing County between 1950 and 2025. That does not mean one cannot happen.
How Pershing County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pershing County (this page) | — | Very Low | 6.0 | Wildfire |
| Churchill County | 96 km | Relatively Low | 47.3 | Earthquake |
| Washoe County | 110 km | Relatively High | 96.7 | Earthquake |
| Humboldt County | 110 km | Very Low | 40.8 | Wildfire |
| Lander County | 129 km | Very Low | 17.0 | Wildfire |
| Storey County | 146 km | Very Low | 25.2 | Wildfire |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Nevada, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Relatively High 75.4 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Very Low 0.6 |
| Community risk factor | 1.53 |
| 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 Pershing County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Nevada · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Wildfire: US wildfires now · Wildfire smoke: what protects you
- Drought: Drought monitor for Nevada
- Earthquake: Earthquakes today · Earthquake safety guide
- 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 Pershing County
What natural disasters is Pershing County, Nevada most at risk from?
Pershing County, Nevada has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 6.0 out of 100, higher than about 6% of US counties, with wildfires, drought and earthquakes scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $2.3 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Pershing County had?
OpenFEMA lists 2 federal disaster declarations that included Pershing County since 2005, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is EM-3243-NV (Hurricane Katrina Evacuation, declared 13 September 2005). Another 19 Nevada declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Pershing County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has no tornado on record touching Pershing 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.