511 flood insurance claims·$24.8M paid·10 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 Windsor County, Vermont. 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 summer thunderstorms dominates the flood profile of Windsor County, VT, accounting for 44 events and 1 death over the last 30 years compared to 11 general flood events. Recent severe weather includes slow-moving thunderstorms on June 6, 2025, that produced 2 to 3.5 inches of rain and localized flooding, as well as prolonged heavy rainfall from July 9 through July 11, 2023, which dropped 4 to 9 inches of rain across the Green Mountains and caused moderate to major flooding in the White River basin.
National Flood Insurance Program records show claims across multiple zones, with the highest concentration in high-risk areas. Specifically, Zone A accounts for 367 claims with an average payout of $68,218 and an average recorded water depth of 11 inches. Properties outside high-risk zones also experience significant impacts; Zone X records show 93 claims with an average payout of $60,132 and an average recorded water depth of 22 inches, while Zone X shaded areas record 21 claims with an average payout of $11,865 and an average recorded water depth of 16 inches.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties located within Zone A and Zone X, where historical claims and average water depths demonstrate substantial flood exposure.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
9% of Windsor County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
402 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 13 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 2011, with 262 claims and $13.6M paid, the year of Hurricane Irene.
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.
43 NOAA storm reports from Windsor County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Vermont flood stories →
27 federal disaster declarations since 1969, 10 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Tropical Depression Debby | Aug 8, 2024 |
| Severe Storm And Flooding | Dec 18, 2023 |
| Flooding | Jul 9, 2023 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Jul 7, 2023 |
| Tropical Storm Henri | Aug 22, 2021 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Apr 15, 2019 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Jun 29, 2017 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Dec 9, 2014 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
55 since 1996: 44 flash floods and 11 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | May 17, 2025 | $250,000 |
| Flood | Jun 6, 2025 | $25,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 18, 2023 | $100,000 |
| Flood | Dec 18, 2023 | $250,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 10, 2023 | $5,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 10, 2023 | $25.0M · 1 killed |
| Flash Flood | Jul 7, 2023 | $25,000 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 4, 2023 | $50,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · May 17, 2025. A weak area of low pressure and associated front moved across northern NY and Vermont during the afternoon and evening hours of May 17th. This system moved across a relatively unstable airmass across the region that resulted in numerous showers and thunderstorms.||Some of the thunderstorms were severe with damaging winds and large hail upward of golf ball size (1.75 inches diameter). In addition there was heavy ra…
Flood · Jun 6, 2025. Scattered, slow moving thunderstorms developed across portions of south central Vermont on the afternoon of June 6, 2025 as a slow moving front sagged southward through the region. A few of the storms produced localized heavy rainfall of between 2 and 3.5 inches, leading to localized reports of flooding in Windsor County, VT.
Flash Flood · Jul 18, 2023. Scattered thunderstorms, some with torrential rainfall affected scattered areas across Vermont on July 14. Two to locally four inches of rain fell in a some areas, leading to a few reports of flash flooding and road washouts.
Flood · Dec 18, 2023. A very deep trough across the eastern seaboard allowed a deep, mild, moist flow from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic ocean to feed into the northeast United States, including VT and NY on December 17th and 18th.||Surface low pressure across Florida on December 17th moved north along the eastern seaboard into New England on December 18th. Mild, moist air delivered 1.5 to 3+ inches of rainfall to northeast NY al…
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 Windsor 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.