Natural hazards · Melrose

Melrose, SD natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Melrose comes from cold waves, and overall the risk is moderate for a U.S. community. Flood insurance has paid 23 claims here since 1997.

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

Expected damage

How exposed is Melrose?

Moderate

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Melrose to be higher than in 50% of U.S. communities, mostly from cold waves and inland flooding.

Cold waves52%Inland flooding27%Tornadoes10%Everything else11%

By hazard

What Melrose faces

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

Cold waves

52% of expected damage

Above average · higher than 63% of U.S. places

Recorded about 14 times a year in the area

Inland flooding

27% of expected damage

Above average · higher than 66% of U.S. places

Recorded about once a year in the area

Tornadoes

10% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 90% of U.S. places

Recorded about once every 9 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 Melrose flood?

Every paid claim on a federal flood insurance policy in Melrose, from FEMA’s records.

23paid claims since 1997

$144Kpaid to owners

0homes flooded more than once

19972026

Biggest named events

Severe flooding: 5 claims, $10K

of homes in flood zones
are insured

of all homes
are insured

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

Insurance rates: Grant County.

Disasters that hit Melrose

Federal disasters declared here

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

Brought FEMA money into MelroseDeclared for Grant County only

Grant County has had 20 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often floods and severe storms.

Around Melrose

Melrose and the towns around it

Very lowLowModerateHighVery high

Geneseomostly inland floodingHigh

Albanmostly cold wavesModerate

Melrosemostly cold wavesModerate

Kilbornmostly cold wavesModerate

Big Stonemostly 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. Melrose covers 1 census tract, combined by population.

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

FEMA’s expected losses across Melrose total about $6.9M a year, counting buildings, people and crops.

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.