372 flood insurance claims·$8.5M paid·3 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 Washington 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 dominates the flood character of Washington County, accounting for 35 of the 52 recorded flood events over the last 30 years, alongside 17 general flood events. Severe weather patterns drive these incidents, typically caused by cold fronts moving into the area and interacting with warm, unstable air masses. Notable events include severe thunderstorms that developed along a cold front in April 2020, as well as a strong upper-level storm system accompanied by warm and cold fronts that triggered multiple flash flood events across the region in May 2019.
National Flood Insurance Program records indicate that flood risks extend across multiple zones, with the vast majority of claims concentrated in high-risk areas. Zone A accounts for 325 claims, showing an average payout of $25,761 and an average recorded water depth of 6 inches. Meanwhile, properties outside traditional high-risk zones also experience impacts; Zone X unshaded recorded 15 claims with an average payout of $42,790 and an average water depth of 6 inches, while Zone X properties averaged 12 inches of recorded water depth across 13 claims.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the most attention to properties located in Zone A, which bears the heaviest claim volume, while remaining aware that properties in various Zone X designations also face meaningful financial and depth risks from inundation.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
9% of Washington County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
357 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 1986, with 101 claims and $2.2M paid, the year of Severe Storms & 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.
12 NOAA storm reports from Washington County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Oklahoma flood stories →
33 federal disaster declarations since 1973, 3 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Rattlesnake Fire | Feb 19, 2026 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Apr 25, 2024 |
| Gap Road Fire, Oklahoma Fmag | Mar 31, 2023 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Feb 8, 2021 |
| Severe Winter Storms | Feb 8, 2021 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 7, 2019 |
| Dld Fire Complex | Nov 11, 2015 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 31, 2011 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
52 since 1996: 35 flash floods and 17 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Apr 28, 2020 | — |
| Flood | May 25, 2019 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 22, 2019 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 21, 2019 | — |
| Flood | May 21, 2019 | — |
| Flood | May 20, 2019 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 20, 2019 | — |
| Flood | Jun 1, 2019 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Apr 28, 2020. A broken line of severe thunderstorms developed across northeastern Oklahoma during the late afternoon hours of the 28th, as a cold front moved into the area. The line of thunderstorms moved southeast across eastern Oklahoma through the evening hours. Very strong instability and strong deep layer shear developed across eastern Oklahoma ahead of the thunderstorms. These conditions promoted the development of superc…
Flood · May 25, 2019. A persistently active weather pattern, consisting of a deep trough over the western U. S. and ridging along the Gulf Coast and southeastern U. S., set the stage for numerous rounds of rainfall across the Southern Plains from May 18th through the end of the month. The atmospheric moisture remained unseasonably high during this period, resulting in very efficient rainfall-producing showers and thunderstorms. Anteced…
Flash Flood · May 22, 2019. Severe thunderstorms developed over northeastern Oklahoma during the afternoon hours of the 22nd, ahead of a cold front that moved into the area. Very strong instability and wind shear in the air mass ahead of the cold front allowed for the development of supercell thunderstorms, which affected the area through late evening. These supercells produced twenty-one documented tornadoes, including a significant tornado…
Flash Flood · May 21, 2019. A strong upper level storm system moved into the Southern Plains from the Rockies on the 20th and 21st. The attendant warm front moved from northern Texas northward into northeastern Oklahoma during the day on the 20th, and then the cold front associated with this storm system moved through eastern Oklahoma during the late evening of the 20th and early morning hours of the 21st. Warm, moist, and very unstable air…
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 Washington 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.