Yakima County, Washington: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Yakima County, Washington has a Relatively Moderate natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 94.0 out of 100, higher than about 94% of US counties, with wildfires, landslides and cold waves scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $120 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 37 federal disaster declarations that included Yakima County since 1964, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is EM-3650-WA (Wildfires, declared 3 August 2026). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 8 tornadoes touching Yakima County from 1950 to 2025.
Live weather alerts for Washington All official warnings Latest FEMA declarations
Population 256,420 Buildings worth $54 billion Area 4,354 sq mi Risk rank in Washington 6 of 39 FIPS 53077
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 High | 98.9 | $19 million | about once every 79 years | — |
| Landslide | Relatively High | 98.4 | $656,133 | about 4.5 a year | — |
| Cold wave | Relatively High | 98.2 | $18 million | about once every 2.8 years | 6.8 |
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | 97.4 | $29 million | about once every 76 years | — |
| Avalanche | Very High | 94.9 | $3.0 million | about once every 7.5 years | 4 |
| Heat wave | Relatively Moderate | 93.5 | $3.7 million | about 4.8 a year | 56 |
| Inland flooding | Relatively Moderate | 92.9 | $44 million | about 1.5 a year | 42 |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | 92.7 | $1.8 million | about once every 11 years | 3.4 |
| Volcanic activity | Relatively Low | 87.9 | $8,167 | about once every 76 years | 11 |
| Winter weather | Relatively High | 85.5 | $232,778 | about 18 a year | 345 |
| Strong wind | Relatively Moderate | 70.1 | $789,631 | about once every 8.7 years | 5 |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | 67.6 | $365,504 | about 7.6 a year | 60,518 strikes |
| Ice storm | Relatively Low | 53.6 | $80,060 | about once every 14 years | 5 |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 36.1 | $37,268 | about 24 a year | 819 |
| Tornado | Very Low | 19.5 | $181,134 | about once every 8.9 years | 8 |
| 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 37
Most common: Fire 20, Flood 10, Severe Storm 3, Coastal Storm 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1960s | 1 | Flood |
| 1970s | 5 | Flood ×4, Drought |
| 1980s | 1 | Volcanic Eruption |
| 1990s | 4 | Severe Storm ×2, Flood ×2 |
| 2000s | 9 | Fire ×5, Severe Storm, Flood, Coastal Storm, Earthquake |
| 2010s | 5 | Fire ×5 |
| 2020s | 12 | Fire ×10, Flood ×2 |
The last 10
Widest declarations that included Yakima County
- Hurricane Katrina Evacuation (2005, EM-3227-WA): 39 Washington counties designated.
- Volcanic Eruption, Mt. St. Helens (1980, DR-623-WA): 39 Washington counties designated.
- Severe Winter Storms, Land & Muds Slides,flooding (1997, DR-1159-WA): 38 Washington 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. Washington also had 25 statewide declarations with no county list.
Tornado record since 1950 8
| Tornadoes touching the county | 8 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F2 ×1 |
| Peak month | April (4) |
| Deadliest | — |
| Longest path | 30 Apr 1957, F2, 1 mi path |
| Most recent | 7 Apr 2008, EF0, 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 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 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 Yakima County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yakima County (this page) | — | Relatively Moderate | 94.0 | Wildfire |
| Klickitat County | 65 km | Relatively Low | 73.9 | Wildfire |
| Kittitas County | 74 km | Relatively Moderate | 89.1 | Wildfire |
| Benton County | 97 km | Relatively Moderate | 87.1 | Wildfire |
| Skamania County | 103 km | Relatively Low | 49.7 | Volcanic activity |
| Sherman County, OR | 117 km | Very Low | 2.9 | Wildfire |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Washington, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Relatively High 63.9 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Very Low 13.5 |
| Community risk factor | 1.29 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $120 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 Yakima County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Washington · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Wildfire: US wildfires now · Wildfire smoke: what protects you
- Landslide: Landslides recorded
- Cold wave: Carbon monoxide in winter · Power outages now
- 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 Yakima County
What natural disasters is Yakima County, Washington most at risk from?
Yakima County, Washington has a Relatively Moderate natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 94.0 out of 100, higher than about 94% of US counties, with wildfires, landslides and cold waves scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $120 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Yakima County had?
OpenFEMA lists 37 federal disaster declarations that included Yakima County since 1964, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is EM-3650-WA (Wildfires, declared 3 August 2026). Another 25 Washington declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Yakima County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 8 tornadoes touching Yakima 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.