232 flood insurance claims·$3.5M paid·4 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 Canadian County, Oklahoma. 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 from slow-moving summer thunderstorms and heavy rainfall dominates the flood risk profile in Canadian County, accounting for 49 recorded events compared to 8 general flood events over the last 30 years. Recent impacts include severe weather and heavy rainfall events in July 2023 and July 2025, which caused afternoon flooding across western and northern portions of the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Area.
National Flood Insurance Program records indicate that flood claims are distributed across multiple zones, with the highest concentration occurring in Zone A with 118 claims averaging $22,419 and an average recorded water depth of 7 inches. Properties in Zone X also experienced significant impacts, recording 44 claims with an average payout of $24,033 and an average water depth of 8 inches, alongside 36 claims in Zone X unshaded averaging $11,261 with an average water depth of 2 inches.
Homeowners and real estate agents with properties located in Zone A and Zone X should pay the closest attention to flood risk, as these areas account for the majority of historical claims and higher average water depths during heavy precipitation events.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
27% of Canadian County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
161 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 6 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 2007, with 53 claims and $1.3M paid, the year of Severe Winter Storms, Severe Storms, Tornadoes and Flooding, Severe Storms, Flooding, and Tornadoes and Severe Storms, Tornadoes, 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.
13 NOAA storm reports from Canadian County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Oklahoma flood stories →
39 federal disaster declarations since 1973, 4 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Feb 8, 2021 |
| Severe Winter Storms | Feb 8, 2021 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Oct 26, 2020 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 7, 2019 |
| Severe Winter Storms And Flooding | Dec 26, 2015 |
| Severe Winter Storms And Flooding | Nov 27, 2015 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | May 5, 2015 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 18, 2013 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
57 since 1996: 49 flash floods and 8 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Jul 12, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Jul 12, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 9, 2023 | $10,000 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 29, 2022 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 27, 2020 | $5,000 |
| Flash Flood | Sep 1, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 26, 2019 | $2,000 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 26, 2019 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Jul 12, 2025. A weak and slow-moving upper trough translated across the WFO Norman Forecast Area on the 12th. A low-level airmass characterized by high humidity and modest buoyancy led to thunderstorms with heavy rainfall. Flooding occurred during the afternoon hours across the western and northern portions of the OKC Metropolitan Area. A pair of weak tornadoes were also observed across north-central Oklahoma given very low clo…
Flood · Jul 12, 2025. A weak and slow-moving upper trough translated across the WFO Norman Forecast Area on the 12th. A low-level airmass characterized by high humidity and modest buoyancy led to thunderstorms with heavy rainfall. Flooding occurred during the afternoon hours across the western and northern portions of the OKC Metropolitan Area. A pair of weak tornadoes were also observed across north-central Oklahoma given very low clo…
Flash Flood · Jul 9, 2023. An impactful severe weather event occurred across portions of western into central Oklahoma during the early morning hours of the 9th. Initially, a broken line of strong to severe thunderstorms entered northwestern Oklahoma and slowly organized into a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS). Additional organized/severe storms developed across central Oklahoma owing to an increasing low-level jet/isentropic ascent. S…
Flash Flood · Aug 29, 2022. With the trough lingering over the area, thunderstorms developed once again during the afternoon with wind and hail reported. Heavy rainfall also led to flooding in some areas.
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 Canadian 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.