Clark County, WI: Tornado Risk and Shelter Cost
How likely is a tornado in Clark County, WI?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has recorded 44 tornado tracks touching Clark County since 1950 - about one every 1.7 years on average. That puts it in our High band nationally. Against the rest of the country, that is the 84th percentile for frequency. Among 72 Wisconsin counties in this dataset, Clark County ranks 7 for how often a tornado touches down.
Has Clark County ever had a violent tornado?
Yes, 1 time: Clark County has an EF4-5 tornado on record. Wherever that history exists, FEMA's safe-room case applies regardless of how often the county gets touched overall.
Paying for it, if Clark County's history says you should
A storm shelter or in-residence safe room typically runs $2,890-$13,280 nationally, around $7,645 for a common single-family installation. No state-administered rebate program specific to Wisconsin was confirmed for this site - FEMA's own Hazard Mitigation Assistance grants fund 75% of an approved safe room nationwide, but only some states currently run a homeowner-facing application on top of that.
The gap a shelter does not cover
Power loss after a tornado outbreak in Wisconsin often reaches homes the storm itself never touched. A battery-backup unit covers the outage without the fuel and venting a generator needs.
County-level, not address-level
Treat this as a county-wide figure, not a prediction for one address. Clark County covers about 1,210 square miles, so a single touch here counts the same as a single touch in a county a fraction of that size. And records from before the 1990s, NOAA notes, undercount weaker tornadoes in areas with less storm-spotting coverage at the time. Clark County has about 34,801 residents.