Severe Storms, Flash Floods, Hail, Tornadoes

May 5 to 10, 1981 · Severe Storm · $1.4 billion in 2024 dollars

One of the severe storm disasters on NOAA’s billion-dollar list: $1.4 billion in losses at 2024 prices ($401 million at the time) and 20 deaths.

What the offices filed during it

The 31 most significant severe storm episodes filed in these dates, colored by kind.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar

The toll

Losses, 2024 dollars: $1.4 billion
Losses at the time: $401 million
Deaths: 20

The losses and deaths are NCEI’s, counting everything the disaster did. The episodes below are only what the Weather Service filed in its Storm Events record, which counts damage differently and often not at all, so the two never add up and are shown apart.

By state, as filed

State	Events	Injuries	Damage filed
Texas	128	3	$5.0 million
Georgia	2	0	$250,000
Louisiana	14	0	$28,000
Florida	3	0	$28,000
Pennsylvania	2	0	$25,000
Virginia	1	0	$25,000
New Mexico	2	0	$30
Utah	1	0	$30
Tennessee	1	0	$30
Kansas	21	0
Oklahoma	13	0
Colorado	8	0
Kentucky	6	0
Indiana	4	0
Ohio	2	0
Idaho	1	0
Arkansas	1	0
Illinois	1	0

Episode by episode

Every billion-dollar disaster Every storm of 1981 Tornadoes in 1981

Sources

NOAA NCEI, U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters (2025), https://doi.org/10.25921/stkw-7w73, and the Storm Events Database for the episodes.