Quay County, NM Tornado Risk & Storm Shelter Cost
How likely is a tornado in Quay County, NM?
Since 1950, NOAA has logged 40 tornado tracks crossing Quay County - one about every 1.9 years, which lands it in our High band. Nationally, Quay County ranks at the 80th percentile for tornado frequency. Within New Mexico alone, Quay County ranks 7 of 33 counties for tornado frequency.
Quay County's EF4-5 history
Quay County's record has no EF4-5 tornado - its 40 tracks split 34 weak and 5 significant. That does not rule one out in the future, only that none has been recorded since 1950.
What a storm shelter costs near Quay County
For a Quay County homeowner, budget $2,890-$13,280 for a shelter or safe room ($7,645 typical) - this pass found no New Mexico-specific rebate on top of FEMA's underlying 75% national cost-share program.
The outage nobody plans for
8,403 people live in Quay County, and a tornado outbreak's power loss usually reaches far more of New Mexico than the tracks themselves touch. A portable battery unit is the faster, no-fuel way to bridge that outage.
Read this before you rely on it
This is a county-level figure, not a per-address probability. Quay County covers about 2,874 square miles, so a single touch here counts the same as a single touch in a county a fraction of that size. Pre-radar-era records (before the 1990s) are also documented by NOAA as undercounting weaker tornadoes in sparsely-instrumented areas. Quay County has about 8,403 residents.