Sanpete County, Utah: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Sanpete County, Utah has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 38.6 out of 100, higher than about 38% of US counties, with avalanches, wildfires and earthquakes scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $12 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 8 federal disaster declarations that included Sanpete County since 1977, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4752-UT (Flooding, declared 23 December 2023). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 9 tornadoes touching Sanpete County from 1950 to 2025.
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Population 28,408 Buildings worth $5.3 billion Area 1,619 sq mi Risk rank in Utah 12 of 29 FIPS 49039
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avalanche | Very High | 95.5 | $4.0 million | about once every 1.1 years | 27 |
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | 89.0 | $1.2 million | about once every 364 years | — |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | 83.4 | $2.3 million | about once every 85 years | — |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | 80.1 | $726,004 | about 46 a year | 88,374 strikes |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | 79.1 | $14,470 | about 1.4 a year | — |
| Winter weather | Relatively Moderate | 78.9 | $197,736 | about 25 a year | 481 |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 56.3 | $222,397 | about 73 a year | 2,450 |
| Volcanic activity | Very Low | 48.5 | $11 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | 2 |
| Heat wave | Relatively Low | 45.3 | $296,124 | about once every 1.9 years | 6.7 |
| Inland flooding | Very Low | 24.5 | $2.9 million | about once every 2.2 years | 13 |
| Tornado | Very Low | 12.5 | $101,252 | about once every 24 years | 6 |
| Ice storm | Very Low | 12.0 | $6,677 | about once every 67 years | 0 |
| Strong wind | Very Low | 11.9 | $90,356 | about once every 3.4 years | 12 |
| Hail | Very Low | 3.1 | $6,077 | about once every 7.6 years | 5 |
| Cold wave | No Rating | 0.0 | — | — | 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 8
Most common: Flood 4, Fire 2, Coastal Storm 1, Drought 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 1 | Drought |
| 1980s | 2 | Flood ×2 |
| 2000s | 1 | Coastal Storm |
| 2010s | 3 | Fire ×2, Flood |
| 2020s | 1 | Flood |
The last 8
Widest declarations that included Sanpete 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 9
| Tornadoes touching the county | 9 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F2 ×2 |
| Peak month | June (3) |
| Deadliest | — |
| Longest path | 16 Jun 1955, F2, 2.7 mi path |
| Most recent | 25 Jun 2005, F0, 0.5 mi path |
| Deaths / injuries on those paths | 0 / 0 |
| Rating | (E)F0 | (E)F1 | (E)F2 | (E)F3 | (E)F4 | (E)F5 | Unrated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 6 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 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 Sanpete County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sanpete County (this page) | — | Very Low | 38.6 | Avalanche |
| Sevier County | 72 km | Very Low | 22.7 | Earthquake |
| Utah County | 83 km | Relatively High | 95.3 | Lightning |
| Emery County | 86 km | Very Low | 7.0 | Lightning |
| Carbon County | 90 km | Very Low | 8.7 | Landslide |
| Juab County | 110 km | Very Low | 15.3 | Wildfire |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Utah, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Relatively Low 38.0 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Relatively Moderate 52.6 |
| Community risk factor | 1.04 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $12 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 Sanpete County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Utah · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Avalanche: Official warnings now
- Wildfire: US wildfires now · Wildfire smoke: what protects you
- 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 Sanpete County
What natural disasters is Sanpete County, Utah most at risk from?
Sanpete County, Utah has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 38.6 out of 100, higher than about 38% of US counties, with avalanches, wildfires and earthquakes scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $12 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Sanpete County had?
OpenFEMA lists 8 federal disaster declarations that included Sanpete County since 1977, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4752-UT (Flooding, declared 23 December 2023). Another 2 Utah declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Sanpete County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 9 tornadoes touching Sanpete 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.