Natural hazards · Fairfax

Fairfax, SD natural hazards

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

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

Expected damage

How exposed is Fairfax?

Moderate

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Fairfax to be higher than in 43% of U.S. communities, mostly from cold waves and inland flooding.

Cold waves43%Inland flooding30%Tornadoes8%Everything else19%

By hazard

What Fairfax faces

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

Cold waves

43% of expected damage

Above average · higher than 62% of U.S. places

Recorded about 6 times a year in the area

Inland flooding

30% of expected damage

Above average · higher than 50% of U.S. places

Recorded about once every 2 years in the area

Tornadoes

8% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 84% of U.S. places

Recorded about once every 3 years in the area

Lower here

HailIce stormsWinter weatherHeat 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 Fairfax flood?

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

of all homes
are insured

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

Insurance rates: Gregory County.

Disasters that hit Fairfax

Federal disasters declared here

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

Brought FEMA money into FairfaxDeclared for Gregory County only

Gregory County has had 19 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often floods and severe storms.

Around Fairfax

Fairfax and the towns around it

Very lowLowModerateHighVery high

Fairfaxmostly cold wavesModerate

Pleasant Valleymostly cold wavesModerate

Star Valleymostly cold wavesModerate

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. Fairfax 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 Fairfax’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to the Township of Fairfax. 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.