Which South Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota Counties Are Bracing For The Harshest Winter Storms?

Even though we have yet to bear the brunt of just how brutal the snow and cold can be this time of year in the Tri-State Area (South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota), nobody needs to tell us about how extreme winter weather can be.

With massive amounts of snowfall and bitterly cold wind chills, we endure more in a single season than most people will ever experience in a lifetime.

So, it's not surprising that when HVAC Gnome looked for the U.S. counties facing the biggest risks from ice storms, blizzards, and cold snaps, our frigid part of the world would show up in a big way.

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To determine the Most Vulnerable Counties for Extreme Winter Weather, they focused on three key areas:

CLIMATE

• Average Historical Winter Temperature

EXTREME WEATHER RISK

• Winter Weather Risk
• Ice Storm Risk
• Cold Wave Risk

FINANCIAL RISK

• Annual Financial Loss from Winter Weather Events
• Annual Financial Loss from Ice Storms
• Annual Financial Loss from Cold Waves

Of the 440 U.S. counties with a relatively high or very high risk of extreme winter weather, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, nearly 20 percent of the top 50 were counties in our backyard.

South Dakota has five in the top 50, with Brown County 13th overall and 11th in the weather extreme risk category.

The Mount Rushmore State's two most populous counties, Minnehaha and Lincoln, also made the top 50 and are among the most vulnerable from a dollars-and-cents perspective.

Lincoln County is 16th in the nation on the list of counties with the biggest financial risks. Minnehaha County is 18th.

SOUTH DAKOTA COUNTIES IN TOP 50 FOR EXTREME WINTER WEATHER

13. Brown County
15. Lincoln County
16. Minnehaha County
35. McCook County
42. Hutchinson County

IOWA DAKOTA COUNTIES IN TOP 50 FOR EXTREME WINTER WEATHER

29. Sioux County

MINNESOTA COUNTIES IN TOP 50 FOR EXTREME WINTER WEATHER

39. Nobles County
47. Stearns County
48. Clay County

A pair of other counties in the North Star State didn't make the top 50 overall, but they did score extremely high in the Winter Climate rankings. Beltrami County was sixth in the nation, while Polk County was seventh.

MOST VULNERABLE COUNTIES FOR EXTREME WINTER WEATHER

1. Johnson County, Kansas
2. Cook County, Illinois
3. St. Louis County, Missouri
4. Tulsa County, Oklahoma
5. Nassau County, New York
6. Washington County, Arkansas
7. Ward County, North Dakota
8. Lancaster County, Nebraska
9. Clay County, Missouri
10. Jackson County, Missouri

One state was the clear winner when it comes to extreme winter weather in America.

North Dakota has 16 counties in the top 50 (32%) overall and landed 17 counties in the top 20 places with the most extreme climates.

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