2 flood insurance claims·$2,369 paid·8 federal flood & hurricane disasters
Share of the whole county outline, rivers and lakes included; parts FEMA hasn’t mapped count as zero.
Shaded areas are FEMA’s mapped flood hazard zones in and around Wright County, Iowa. Zoomed out they are simplified; at street level the map switches to FEMA’s exact layer. Tap anywhere to check that spot, or search an address above.
Flash flooding and general flooding from summer thunderstorms dominate the flood risk in Wright County, Iowa. Over the last 30 years, the NOAA Storm Events Database has recorded 41 flood events and 24 flash flood events, including one flash flood fatality.
Recent events illustrate this recurring summer threat. In June 2025, high precipitable water values exceeding two inches and warm cloud depths produced heavy downpours near Clarion. Multiple rounds of slow-moving thunderstorms and heavy rainfall also caused flash flooding across the county in July 2024.
National Flood Insurance Program records show minimal historical claim activity in the area, limited to single claims in Zone X and Zone X Unshaded, with average payouts of $2,369 and $0 respectively, and an average recorded water depth of 0 inches. Given this mix, homeowners and real estate agents in unshaded Zone X areas should still pay close attention to localized flash flood risks driven by intense summer convective storms.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
59 NOAA storm reports from Wright County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Iowa flood stories →
24 federal disaster declarations since 1965, 8 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms, Flooding, Straight-line Winds, And Tornadoes | Jun 16, 2024 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 20, 2024 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Tornadoes | Dec 15, 2021 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Mar 12, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Jun 6, 2018 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Sep 21, 2016 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Jun 20, 2015 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Jun 14, 2014 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
65 since 1996: 24 flash floods and 41 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Jun 25, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 7, 2024 | — |
| Flood | Mar 15, 2019 | — |
| Flood | Sep 21, 2018 | $100,000 |
| Flood | Sep 20, 2018 | $25,000 |
| Flood | Sep 5, 2018 | $100,000 |
| Flood | Sep 23, 2016 | $50,000 |
| Flood | Sep 23, 2016 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Jun 25, 2025. Much of Iowa was within the warm, moist sector with a boundary across far southern Iowa. With afternoon clearing, temperatures warmed into the 90s with dewpoints in the 70s. This resulted in increasingly unstable conditions with MLCAPE of 2000-3000+ J/kg. Despite the instability, weak shear prevented more organized thunderstorm development, reducing the severe threat. Even so, a storm near Clarion gusted to 50 kts…
Flash Flood · Jul 7, 2024. Following showers and thunderstorms over Iowa during the morning hours with a passing shortwave, an additional shortwave arriving in the Central Plains with the aid of increased lift and MUCAPE values around 1000 J/kg overhead brought another round of scattered showers and storms into the afternoon and evening hours. These multiple rounds of convection, along with the slow-moving nature of some storms led to heavy…
Flood · Mar 15, 2019. Higher than average snowfall through the winter created a wet snowpack across much of Iowa which was still present into early March. A large storm system impacted the region through the middle of March which brought heavy rain and warm temperatures to the state. This system allowed much of the snowpack to melt across the state within a few days to a week. This heavy rain fell on frozen ground allowing nearly all o…
Flood · Sep 21, 2018. Heavy rainfall continued across portions of central and northern Iowa through mid to late September. This allowed rivers across the area to go back into flood through the latter portion of the month. The West Fork of the Des Moines River remained in flood at the end of September and will be included in the October StormData event as well. The basins impacted by flooding were the Des Moines, Cedar, Winnebago, Shell…
National Weather Service narratives, lightly trimmed. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Every colour on the map above is a place on this drawing: where the ground sits relative to the flood FEMA plans for.
If a building in Wright County is in a high-risk zone (A or V) and its mortgage comes from a federally regulated or insured lender, or is federally backed, flood insurance is required.
Outside those zones it is optional, and often worth having: from 2014 to 2024 nearly one-third of NFIP claims came from outside the high-risk Special Flood Hazard Area. Since Risk Rating 2.0, NFIP premiums are set for each building, so the only reliable price is a quote: FloodSmart.gov or a local agent.