882 flood insurance claims·$12.4M paid·5 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 Lake County, Ohio. 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 river flooding from summer thunderstorms dominate the flood risk profile in Lake County, Ohio. Over the last 30 years, the NOAA Storm Events Database recorded 26 flash flood events resulting in 1 death, alongside 23 general flood events, 1 lakeshore flood, and 1 coastal flood. Recent flash floods are exemplified by heavy storm systems in June 2024 and August 2023, driven by warm, humid air masses, tropical-like moisture with precipitable water values exceeding 2.0 inches, and slow-moving cold fronts producing scattered to organized multicell thunderstorms across northern Ohio.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (NFIP) claims data shows that high-risk areas carry the heaviest financial burden, led by Zone A with 548 claims averaging $19,062 per payout and an average recorded water depth of 8 inches. Properties in Zone X also face significant risk, with 83 claims averaging $27,593 and an average 8 inches of water depth, while unshaded Zone X recorded 81 claims averaging $22,133 with an average 6 inches of water depth. Shaded Zone X recorded 53 claims averaging $13,745 with an average 8 inches of water depth, and Zone UNKNOWN logged 117 claims averaging $7,183 with an average 2 inches of water depth.
Homeowners in Zone A and Zone X, as well as real estate agents and journalists tracking properties in these high-claim and high-water-depth zones, should pay the closest attention to local flood risks.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
20% of Lake County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
682 NFIP claims with a recorded rated flood zone, 1978 to date. The zone is the one FEMA used to rate that policy, which may not match today’s map. Source: OpenFEMA NFIP claims.
In flood insurance claims here that reported a flood depth, the average was 7 inches.
Drawn to scale against an 80-inch door. Even a few inches soaks flooring, the bottom of the drywall and anything plugged in near the floor.
Average of the depths reported on claims (zero and implausible values left out); FEMA’s record doesn’t say exactly where each depth was measured. Source: OpenFEMA NFIP claims.
The worst year was 2006, with 156 claims and $5.2M paid, the year of Severe Storms, Straight Line Winds, and Flooding.
Bar height is scaled by square root so ordinary years stay visible next to the worst one. NFIP claims by year of loss. Source: OpenFEMA.
28 NOAA storm reports from Lake County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Ohio flood stories →
15 federal disaster declarations since 1969, 5 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms | Jun 29, 2012 |
| Record Snow And Near Record Snow | Mar 7, 2008 |
| Severe Storms, Straight Line Winds, And Flooding | Jul 27, 2006 |
| Hurricane Katrina Evacuation | Aug 29, 2005 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Aug 27, 2004 |
| Power Outage | Aug 14, 2003 |
| Severe Storms & Flooding | May 23, 1989 |
| Blizzards & Snowstorms | Jan 26, 1978 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
51 since 1996: 26 flash floods, 23 river or area floods and 2 coastal floods or surges.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Jun 18, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 18, 2024 | $10,000 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 23, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 23, 2023 | $100,000 |
| Flash Flood | Mar 29, 2020 | $20,000 |
| Flood | Oct 21, 2020 | — |
| Flood | May 15, 2020 | — |
| Flood | Jan 23, 2019 | $20,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Jun 18, 2024. Northern Ohio resided within the warm and humid sector along the northwestern flank of the Bermuda-Azores subtropical high during the late morning of the 17th through late evening of the 20th. In addition, a cold front drifted southeastward from the western Great Lakes to Lake Erie and northwest OH by the evening of the 20th.||Well-ahead of the the cold front, scattered multicell thunderstorms developed and persis…
Flash Flood · Aug 23, 2023. An anomalously-warm and moist air mass was in place across much of the Central Plains and Midwest, resulting in strong to perhaps extreme instability in addition to tropical-like precipitable water values exceeding 2.0 inches. The Lower Great Lakes region, specifically northern Ohio and Northwest Pennsylvania found itself on the eastern edge of this heat dome. Strong northwest flow aloft persisted along the periph…
Flash Flood · Mar 29, 2020. A warm front over central Ohio on the morning of Saturday March 28, 2020 was the focus for several rounds of elevated thunderstorms through the early afternoon hours. The main area for these thunderstorms were the US 30 and I-76 corridors through the morning and early afternoon hours as storms remained parallel to the warm front and moved with the 850 mb jet. These storms well utilized the steep mid-level lapse ra…
Flood · Oct 21, 2020. On the morning of October 21st a warm front stalled over northern Ohio. This feature brought repeating showers and thunderstorms to the City of Cleveland and surrounding areas. Following a recent wet period, the ground was near saturation and smaller community storm drainage systems were near capacity. Moderate rainfall measuring over an inch an hour. Several road closers and a few water rescues resulted from area…
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 Lake 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.