140
Recorded events
0
Direct deaths
0
Direct injuries
$1.2M
Property damage
Flood in Brown County, South Dakota: 140 recorded events between 2007 and 2025. The strongest on record measured 0. That places the county #31 nationally and #2 statewide for this hazard.
Decade by decade
Flood in Brown County, South Dakota: events per decade
Reporting practice changed over time — early decades are undercounted, not calmer.
The busiest decade for flood in Brown County is the 2010s, when 72 of the county's 140 recorded events were logged. Comparing decades is useful for spotting active periods, but the earliest years are thin because systematic reporting for this hazard began later.
Within the Brown County archive, flood makes up 12.7% of all recorded severe weather across 8 hazard types. Nationally the county sits at #31 for this hazard and #2 within South Dakota, putting it in the 99.0 percentile of all U.S. counties.
Seasonality
Events by month
Apr is the peak month for flood in Brown County with 27 recorded events, while Jan is the quietest. Seasonality here is a property of the archive as much as the climate: reports cluster where population and spotter networks are densest.
Most recent
Latest recorded events
| Date | Location | Magnitude | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 1, 2025 | MELLETTE | 0 | $0 |
| Sep 1, 2025 | PUTNEY | 0 | $0 |
| Sep 1, 2025 | PLANA | 0 | $0 |
| Aug 26, 2025 | PUTNEY | 0 | $0 |
| Aug 17, 2025 | ABERDEEN | 0 | $0 |
| Aug 11, 2025 | PLANA | 0 | $0 |
| Jul 15, 2025 | ABERDEEN | 0 | $0 |
| Sep 1, 2023 | PUTNEY | 0 | $0 |
| Aug 1, 2023 | PUTNEY | 0 | $0 |
| Aug 1, 2023 | PLANA | 0 | $0 |
Other hazards here
More from Brown County
- Hail 437
- Thunderstorm Wind 404
- Tornado 84
From the record
What the reports say
Written by National Weather Service staff at the time of the event · public domain
Many areas of Brown county continued to experience flooding throughout May with the previous snowmelt water along with above normal May rainfall. The main areas of concern continued to be in northeast Brown county in the Hecla and Claremont areas. Many roads along with countless acres of crop and pastureland remained under water throughout the county.
The James river gauge at Columbia observed a level of 16.0 feet on August 1st. Over the course of the month the river level dropped slowly, finally falling below the flood stage of 13.0 feet on the morning of August 23rd, 130 days after the initial start of flooding. Flooding continued to mostly impact cropland and pastures, along with a few county roads.
Snowmelt runoff brought the Elm River twice above and below flood stage at the end of March. The river rose above the flood stage of 14 feet to 14.2 feet and again to 15.9 feet. Minor flooding of crop and pastureland occurred.
Quick answers
Frequently asked
How many flood events are on record in Brown County, South Dakota?
140 flood events are recorded in Brown County between 2007 and 2025, causing 0 direct deaths.
What is the strongest flood recorded in Brown County?
The strongest flood on record in Brown County measured 0.
Where does the flood data for Brown County come from?
All events come from the NOAA/NCEI Storm Events Database, the federal public-domain archive of severe weather reports. Dates are UTC, damage is as reported and not inflation-adjusted, and the most recent entries may still be revised.
Cite this page
“Flood in Brown County, South Dakota.” Severe Weather History. severeweatherhistory.com/county/south-dakota/brown-county/flood/ · Data: NOAA/NCEI, FEMA, U.S. Census — public domain.