Natural hazards · Fairbanks

Fairbanks, ND natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Fairbanks comes from cold waves, and overall the risk is very low for a U.S. community.

FEMA National Risk Index, December 2025 · OpenFEMA claims, aid & declarations

Expected damage

How exposed is Fairbanks?

Very low

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Fairbanks to be higher than in 6% of U.S. communities, mostly from cold waves and inland flooding.

Cold waves57%Inland flooding21%Winter weather5%Everything else18%

By hazard

What Fairbanks faces

Each hazard’s share of the damage FEMA expects here, and how that compares with the rest of the country.

Cold waves

57% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 77% of U.S. places

Recorded about 22 times a year in the area

Inland flooding

21% of expected damage

Well below average · higher than 8% of U.S. places

Recorded about once every 3 years in the area

Winter weather

5% of expected damage

Well above average · among the top 1% of U.S. places

Recorded about 19 times a year in the area

Lower here

TornadoesHailIce stormsHeat wavesWildfireEarthquakesLandslidesStrong windLightningDrought

Not a risk here

Coastal floodingHurricanesAvalanchesTsunamisVolcanic activity

Flood risk changes street by street. Check a specific address on FEMA’s flood map, and ask about flood insurance before you buy.

Flood insurance claims

Does Fairbanks flood?

FEMA's records show no paid flood insurance claims in Fairbanks.

of all homes
are insured

No community discount. Fairbanks isn’t in FEMA’s Community Rating System, which cuts flood insurance up to 45% in towns that do extra flood-proofing.

Insurance rates: Renville County.

Disasters that hit Fairbanks

Federal disasters declared here

None of the disasters declared for Renville County shows FEMA aid or repair money reaching Fairbanks itself in FEMA’s records.

Brought FEMA money into FairbanksDeclared for Renville County only

Renville County has had 23 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often floods and severe storms.

Around Fairbanks

Fairbanks and the towns around it

Very lowLowModerateHighVery high

Denmarkmostly cold wavesVery low

Fairbanksmostly cold wavesVery low

McKinneymostly cold wavesVery low

Rockfordmostly cold wavesVery low

About these numbers

How to read this page

An average, not a forecastFEMA’s National Risk Index estimates the damage 18 kinds of natural hazards cause in a typical year, from decades of records and models. A quiet decade can follow a bad year.

Compared by rate“Higher than N%” compares yearly damage as a share of what’s here, so a big city isn’t rated riskier just for having more buildings. Fairbanks is smaller than a census tract, so it shares the figures of the tract around its center.

Money that reached townFlood claims are matched to Fairbanks’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to the Township of Fairbanks. FEMA’s model follows property values, so a place that recently lost many homes can rate lower than it feels.

Sources: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025); OpenFEMA: NFIP redacted claims, multiple-loss properties, community status book and residential penetration rates, housing assistance (owners and renters), public assistance funded projects, hazard mitigation properties and disaster declarations. Census tracts: U.S. Census Bureau.