Salt Lake County, Utah: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Salt Lake County, Utah has a Relatively High natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 98.6 out of 100, higher than about 98% of US counties, with earthquakes, avalanches and winter storms scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $622 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 10 federal disaster declarations that included Salt Lake County since 1983, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is FM-5408-UT (Parleys Canyon Fire, declared 14 August 2021). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 13 tornadoes touching Salt Lake County from 1950 to 2025.
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Population 1,185,141 Buildings worth $193 billion Area 814 sq mi Risk rank in Utah 1 of 29 FIPS 49035
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 High | 99.6 | $488 million | about once every 66 years | — |
| Avalanche | Very High | 99.1 | $12 million | about 1.5 a year | 46 |
| Winter weather | Very High | 98.7 | $2.3 million | about 28 a year | 523 |
| Wildfire | Relatively High | 98.3 | $25 million | about once every 153 years | — |
| Lightning | Relatively High | 94.4 | $2.5 million | about 39 a year | 565,362 strikes |
| Inland flooding | Relatively Moderate | 92.9 | $79 million | about 1.1 a year | 32 |
| Heat wave | Relatively Moderate | 92.9 | $6.3 million | about 2.2 a year | 28 |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | 86.4 | $52,983 | about once every 1.1 years | — |
| Volcanic activity | Very Low | 75.2 | $281 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | 1 |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | 71.0 | $3.8 million | about once every 20 years | 12 |
| Strong wind | Relatively Moderate | 68.4 | $1.4 million | about 1.3 a year | 50 |
| Hail | Relatively Low | 68.1 | $754,300 | about once every 3.7 years | 11 |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 44.4 | $143,709 | about 49 a year | 1,680 |
| Cold wave | Relatively Low | 32.6 | $696,391 | about once every 18 years | 1.1 |
| Ice storm | Very Low | 13.8 | $12,007 | about once every 67 years | 0 |
| Coastal flooding | No Rating | 0.0 | — | — | — |
| 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 10
Most common: Fire 3, Flood 3, Severe Storm 1, Earthquake 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1980s | 2 | Flood ×2 |
| 1990s | 1 | Tornado |
| 2000s | 1 | Coastal Storm |
| 2010s | 3 | Fire ×2, Flood |
| 2020s | 3 | Fire, Severe Storm, Earthquake |
The last 10
Widest declarations that included Salt Lake County
- Hurricane Katrina Evacuation (2005, EM-3223-UT): 29 Utah counties designated.
- Severe Storms, Landslides & Flooding (1983, DR-680-UT): 22 Utah counties designated.
- Flooding (2011, DR-4011-UT): 18 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 13
| Tornadoes touching the county | 13 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F2 ×2 |
| Peak month | August (5) |
| Deadliest | 11 Aug 1999, F2, 4.3 mi path, 1 killed, 80 injured |
| Longest path | 11 Aug 1999, F2, 4.3 mi path, 1 killed, 80 injured |
| Most recent | 21 Aug 2001, F0, 0.1 mi path |
| Deaths / injuries on those paths | 1 / 80 |
| Rating | (E)F0 | (E)F1 | (E)F2 | (E)F3 | (E)F4 | (E)F5 | Unrated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 7 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 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 Salt Lake County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salt Lake County (this page) | — | Relatively High | 98.6 | Earthquake |
| Davis County | 39 km | Relatively Moderate | 87.8 | Earthquake |
| Morgan County | 56 km | Very Low | 3.5 | Landslide |
| Utah County | 62 km | Relatively High | 95.3 | Lightning |
| Weber County | 70 km | Relatively Moderate | 87.0 | Earthquake |
| Wasatch County | 72 km | Very Low | 33.5 | Landslide |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Utah, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Very Low 10.6 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Relatively High 66.4 |
| Community risk factor | 0.71 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $622 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 Salt Lake County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Utah · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Earthquake: Earthquakes today · Earthquake safety guide
- Avalanche: Official warnings now
- 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 Salt Lake County
What natural disasters is Salt Lake County, Utah most at risk from?
Salt Lake County, Utah has a Relatively High natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 98.6 out of 100, higher than about 98% of US counties, with earthquakes, avalanches and winter storms scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $622 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Salt Lake County had?
OpenFEMA lists 10 federal disaster declarations that included Salt Lake County since 1983, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is FM-5408-UT (Parleys Canyon Fire, declared 14 August 2021). Another 2 Utah declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Salt Lake County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 13 tornadoes touching Salt Lake County from 1950 to 2025. The deadliest: 11 Aug 1999, F2, 4.3 mi path, 1 killed, 80 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.