Rensselaer County, New York: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Rensselaer County, New York has a Relatively Moderate natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 82.2 out of 100, higher than about 82% of US counties, with hail, inland (river and flash) flooding and lightning scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $49 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 27 federal disaster declarations that included Rensselaer County since 1973, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is EM-3565-NY (Hurricane Henri, declared 22 August 2021). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 9 tornadoes touching Rensselaer County from 1950 to 2025.
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Population 161,042 Buildings worth $31 billion Area 672 sq mi Risk rank in New York 22 of 62 FIPS 36083
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | 93.7 | $2.5 million | about 2.9 a year | 108 |
| Inland flooding | Relatively Moderate | 89.0 | $37 million | about 2.3 a year | 64 |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | 80.2 | $756,332 | about 27 a year | 112,035 strikes |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | 79.4 | $1.8 million | about once every 16 years | 20 |
| Strong wind | Relatively Moderate | 78.3 | $1.3 million | about 1.4 a year | 55 |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | 76.6 | $3.4 million | about once every 6.5 years | 10 |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | 72.7 | $7,864 | about once every 1.2 years | — |
| Ice storm | Relatively Moderate | 70.7 | $239,699 | about once every 1.2 years | 57 |
| Winter weather | Relatively Moderate | 65.5 | $114,446 | about 17 a year | 320 |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | 63.3 | $568,253 | about once every 952 years | — |
| Heat wave | Relatively Low | 57.6 | $548,897 | about 3 a year | 51 |
| Cold wave | Relatively Low | 52.7 | $1.1 million | about 2.5 a year | 48 |
| Avalanche | Very Low | 41.5 | $302 | about once every 100 years | 0 |
| Wildfire | Very Low | 29.3 | $13,979 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | — |
| Coastal flooding | No Rating | 0.0 | — | — | — |
| Drought | No Rating | 0.0 | — | — | 0 |
| 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 27
Most common: Severe Storm 10, Hurricane 6, Snowstorm 5, Other 2.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 3 | Toxic Substances, Hurricane, Flood |
| 1980s | 1 | Snowstorm |
| 1990s | 5 | Snowstorm ×2, Hurricane, Severe Storm, Flood |
| 2000s | 12 | Severe Storm ×7, Other ×2, Hurricane, Snowstorm, Fire |
| 2010s | 5 | Hurricane ×2, Severe Storm ×2, Snowstorm |
| 2020s | 1 | Hurricane |
The last 10
Widest declarations that included Rensselaer County
- Hurricane Sandy (2012, EM-3351-NY): 62 New York counties designated.
- Hurricane Katrina Evacuation (2005, EM-3262-NY): 62 New York counties designated.
- Severe Storms and Flooding (2004, DR-1534-NY): 62 New York counties designated.
Named storms in its declarations: Hurricane Henri (2021), Hurricane Sandy (2012), Tropical Storm Lee (2011), Hurricane Irene (2011), Hurricane Katrina (2005), Hurricane Floyd (1999), Hurricane Belle (1976).
Not counted above: 2 COVID-19 ("Biological") declarations — in 2020 every US county was included. New York also had 7 statewide declarations with no county list.
Tornado record since 1950 9
| Tornadoes touching the county | 9 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F2 ×2 |
| Peak month | May (3) |
| Deadliest | 28 Aug 1973, F2, 2.3 mi path, 0 killed, 1 injured |
| Longest path | 31 May 1998, F2, 8 mi path |
| Most recent | 29 Aug 2020, EF1, 2.2 mi path |
| Deaths / injuries on those paths | 0 / 1 |
| Rating | (E)F0 | (E)F1 | (E)F2 | (E)F3 | (E)F4 | (E)F5 | Unrated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 1 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
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 Rensselaer County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rensselaer County (this page) | — | Relatively Moderate | 82.2 | Hail |
| Albany County | 40 km | Relatively Moderate | 85.9 | Landslide |
| Berkshire County, MA | 45 km | Relatively Moderate | 84.0 | Inland flooding |
| Schenectady County | 46 km | Relatively Low | 71.3 | Inland flooding |
| Bennington County, VT | 50 km | Relatively Low | 52.3 | Cold wave |
| Columbia County | 52 km | Relatively Low | 68.7 | Landslide |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in New York, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Relatively Low 34.9 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Very High 87.1 |
| Community risk factor | 1.00 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $49 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 Rensselaer County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for New York · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Hail: Weather alerts for New York
- Inland flooding: Flood safety: why shallow water kills · Floods recorded
- Lightning: Weather alerts for New York
- 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 Rensselaer County
What natural disasters is Rensselaer County, New York most at risk from?
Rensselaer County, New York has a Relatively Moderate natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 82.2 out of 100, higher than about 82% of US counties, with hail, inland (river and flash) flooding and lightning scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $49 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Rensselaer County had?
OpenFEMA lists 27 federal disaster declarations that included Rensselaer County since 1973, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is EM-3565-NY (Hurricane Henri, declared 22 August 2021). Another 7 New York declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Rensselaer County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 9 tornadoes touching Rensselaer County from 1950 to 2025. The deadliest: 28 Aug 1973, F2, 2.3 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.