Lafayette County, Wisconsin: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Lafayette County, Wisconsin has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 33.1 out of 100, higher than about 33% of US counties, with cold waves, hail and landslides scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $12 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 12 federal disaster declarations that included Lafayette County since 1969, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4343-WI (Severe Storms, Straight-Line Winds, Flooding, Landslides, and Mud, declared 7 October 2017). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 37 tornadoes touching Lafayette County from 1950 to 2025.
Live weather alerts for Wisconsin All official warnings Latest FEMA declarations
Population 16,579 Buildings worth $4.7 billion Area 641 sq mi Risk rank in Wisconsin 62 of 72 FIPS 55065
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cold wave | Relatively Moderate | 83.0 | $5.0 million | about 5.8 a year | 110 |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | 82.3 | $1.1 million | about 3.6 a year | 135 |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | 79.7 | $17,138 | about once every 3.3 years | — |
| Strong wind | Relatively Low | 48.7 | $598,387 | about 4.8 a year | 182 |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 46.0 | $122,032 | about 5.2 a year | 168 |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | 44.6 | $1.2 million | about once every 2.1 years | 29 |
| Heat wave | Very Low | 38.4 | $237,065 | about 3.7 a year | 56 |
| Ice storm | Relatively Low | 38.4 | $55,075 | about once every 1.2 years | 56 |
| Inland flooding | Very Low | 27.3 | $3.6 million | about 1.3 a year | 35 |
| Earthquake | Very Low | 21.0 | $34,855 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | — |
| Winter weather | Very Low | 18.8 | $18,320 | about 15 a year | 284 |
| Lightning | Very Low | 14.9 | $57,534 | about 38 a year | 69,398 strikes |
| Wildfire | Very Low | 14.7 | $5,610 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | — |
| Hurricane | Very Low | 13.4 | $3,590 | about once every 113 years | 2 |
| Avalanche | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Coastal flooding | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| 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 12
Most common: Severe Storm 7, Flood 2, Snowstorm 1, Hurricane 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1960s | 1 | Flood |
| 1970s | 3 | Severe Storm, Drought, Flood |
| 1990s | 2 | Severe Storm ×2 |
| 2000s | 4 | Severe Storm ×3, Hurricane |
| 2010s | 2 | Severe Storm, Snowstorm |
The last 10
Widest declarations that included Lafayette County
- Hurricane Katrina Evacuation (2005, EM-3249-WI): 72 Wisconsin counties designated.
- Drought (1976, EM-3014-WI): 66 Wisconsin counties designated.
- Severe Storms, Tornadoes & Flooding (1993, DR-994-WI): 47 Wisconsin 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. Wisconsin also had 1 statewide declaration with no county list.
Tornado record since 1950 37
| Tornadoes touching the county | 37 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F3 ×2 |
| Peak month | June (17) |
| Deadliest | 15 May 1998, F2, 20 mi path, 0 killed, 11 injured |
| Longest path | 2 Sep 1963, F1, 70.7 mi path |
| Most recent | 22 Jun 2024, EF0, 5.6 mi path |
| Deaths / injuries on those paths | 0 / 12 |
| Rating | (E)F0 | (E)F1 | (E)F2 | (E)F3 | (E)F4 | (E)F5 | Unrated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 11 | 16 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 1 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 4 |
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 Lafayette County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lafayette County (this page) | — | Very Low | 33.1 | Cold wave |
| Jo Daviess County, IL | 33 km | Relatively Low | 51.3 | Landslide |
| Iowa County | 38 km | Very Low | 23.4 | Landslide |
| Green County | 43 km | Relatively Low | 46.4 | Hail |
| Stephenson County, IL | 52 km | Relatively Low | 73.9 | Hail |
| Grant County | 52 km | Relatively Low | 61.1 | Landslide |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Wisconsin, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Relatively Low 24.1 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Relatively Moderate 58.1 |
| Community risk factor | 0.93 |
| 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 Lafayette County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Wisconsin · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Cold wave: Carbon monoxide in winter · Power outages now
- Hail: Weather alerts for Wisconsin
- Landslide: Landslides recorded
- 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 Lafayette County
What natural disasters is Lafayette County, Wisconsin most at risk from?
Lafayette County, Wisconsin has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 33.1 out of 100, higher than about 33% of US counties, with cold waves, hail and landslides scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $12 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Lafayette County had?
OpenFEMA lists 12 federal disaster declarations that included Lafayette County since 1969, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4343-WI (Severe Storms, Straight-Line Winds, Flooding, Landslides, and Mud, declared 7 October 2017). Another 1 Wisconsin declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Lafayette County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 37 tornadoes touching Lafayette County from 1950 to 2025. The deadliest: 15 May 1998, F2, 20 mi path, 0 killed, 11 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.