Garfield County, Utah: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Garfield County, Utah has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 37.6 out of 100, higher than about 37% of US counties, with landslides, lightning and winter storms scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $10 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 5 federal disaster declarations that included Garfield County since 1977, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is FM-5388-UT (Mammoth Fire, declared 5 June 2021). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 4 tornadoes touching Garfield County from 1950 to 2025.
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Population 5,083 Buildings worth $2.9 billion Area 5,261 sq mi Risk rank in Utah 13 of 29 FIPS 49017
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | 96.2 | $165,471 | about 6.4 a year | — |
| Lightning | Relatively High | 89.8 | $1.0 million | about 45 a year | 62,838 strikes |
| Winter weather | Relatively High | 86.7 | $274,896 | about 18 a year | 343 |
| Avalanche | Relatively Moderate | 85.7 | $913,460 | about once every 15 years | 2 |
| Heat wave | Relatively Moderate | 82.5 | $1.5 million | about 1.4 a year | 15 |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | 78.3 | $300,368 | about once every 971 years | — |
| Volcanic activity | Very Low | 75.9 | $188 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | 3 |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | 64.1 | $509,690 | about once every 75 years | — |
| Inland flooding | Relatively Low | 48.8 | $5.6 million | about 3.6 a year | 101 |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 35.6 | $38,297 | about 106 a year | 2,919 |
| Ice storm | Very Low | 8.4 | $3,672 | about once every 67 years | 0 |
| Strong wind | Very Low | 4.8 | $29,692 | about once every 12 years | 4 |
| Cold wave | Very Low | 3.6 | $2,792 | about once every 85 years | 0.2 |
| Tornado | Very Low | 2.4 | $3,898 | about once every 16 years | 3 |
| Hail | Very Low | 1.2 | $1,071 | about once every 15 years | 2.5 |
| 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: Flood 2, Fire 1, Coastal Storm 1, Drought 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 1 | Drought |
| 1980s | 1 | Flood |
| 2000s | 1 | Coastal Storm |
| 2010s | 1 | Flood |
| 2020s | 1 | Fire |
The last 5
Widest declarations that included Garfield County
- Hurricane Katrina Evacuation (2005, EM-3223-UT): 29 Utah counties designated.
- Drought (1977, EM-3024-UT): 27 Utah counties designated.
- Severe Storms, Landslides & Flooding (1983, DR-680-UT): 22 Utah 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. Utah also had 2 statewide declarations with no county list.
Tornado record since 1950 4
| Tornadoes touching the county | 4 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F1 ×1 |
| Peak month | September (2) |
| Deadliest | — |
| Longest path | 8 Sep 2000, F0, 2 mi path |
| Most recent | 10 Jul 2017, unrated, 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 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 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 Garfield County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garfield County (this page) | — | Very Low | 37.6 | Landslide |
| Wayne County | 70 km | Very Low | 1.9 | Landslide |
| Kane County | 75 km | Very Low | 39.7 | Landslide |
| Piute County | 80 km | Very Low | 0.9 | Landslide |
| Sevier County | 104 km | Very Low | 22.7 | Earthquake |
| Emery County | 143 km | Very Low | 7.0 | Lightning |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Utah, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Relatively Moderate 55.8 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Relatively Moderate 47.3 |
| Community risk factor | 1.19 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $10 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 Garfield County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Utah · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Landslide: Landslides recorded
- Lightning: Weather alerts for Utah
- Winter weather: Power outages now · Carbon monoxide in winter
- 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 Garfield County
What natural disasters is Garfield County, Utah most at risk from?
Garfield County, Utah has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 37.6 out of 100, higher than about 37% of US counties, with landslides, lightning and winter storms scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $10 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Garfield County had?
OpenFEMA lists 5 federal disaster declarations that included Garfield County since 1977, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is FM-5388-UT (Mammoth Fire, declared 5 June 2021). Another 2 Utah declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Garfield County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 4 tornadoes touching Garfield 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.