Flood Zones in Tallahassee and Leon County

A Tallahassee property's flood zone is set by the FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map, which can be checked free at FEMA's Flood Map Service Center, on the water management district's Flood Information Portal or through Leon County's development office.

The FEMA Flood Map Service Center calls itself the official public source for flood hazard information produced in support of the National Flood Insurance Program. Leon County says the effective Flood Insurance Study and the effective and historic FIRMs for Leon County can be viewed or downloaded there, and that a FIRMette, or an official copy of a portion of the FIRM, can also be created for effective or historical FIRMs.

The Northwest Florida Water Management District's Flood Information Portal lets Tallahassee owners select a county and look up a property's flood risk. The district warns that its data is for informational purposes only, and that for flood insurance or regulatory determinations, or for a Letter of Map Change, only the official and latest FEMA FIRM and Flood Insurance Study should be consulted. The City of Tallahassee flood page sends residents to the same portal for detailed information on flooding where they live.

For unincorporated Leon County, the county's personal risk page says the Environmental Services Division will provide on request whether a property is in or out of the Special Flood Hazard Area, the community number, panel number and suffix and effective date of the FIRM, the zone and base flood elevation or depth, any floodways on the property, any known drainage problems, and copies of FEMA elevation certificates for buildings built in A zones since 1994. Callers are asked to have the street address and parcel ID number ready.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against fourteen Leon County flood protection pages, the City of Tallahassee Flood Awareness page, the NWFWMD Flood Information Portal, the FEMA Flood Map Service Center, two FEMA glossary entries and FEMA's NFIP reauthorization page.

On a Leon County flood map, zones starting with A or V are high-risk Special Flood Hazard Areas, zones B, C and X are moderate-to-low risk, and zone D means no analysis has been done.

Under the FEMA glossary, the high-risk zones on Tallahassee's map are the land a flood with a 1-percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year would cover, the flood also called the base flood or 100-year flood. Leon County puts the same risk in mortgage terms: in high-risk areas there is at least a 1 in 4 chance of flooding during a 30-year mortgage.

Leon County notes that moderate-to-low risk areas still submit over 20 percent of NFIP claims and receive one-third of disaster assistance for flooding, and that flood insurance is recommended there for owners and renters even though it is not federally required. Within a high-risk zone, a regulatory floodway is the channel of a river or other watercourse and the adjacent land that must be reserved to discharge the base flood without raising the water surface more than a designated height, and communities must regulate development in it.

A zone line in Leon County is not a property line either. The county says a flood map isn't intended to be read like a road map with definite limits, because changing weather patterns, erosion and development can affect floodplain boundaries. Its personal risk guide gives the example of one house in the 100-year floodplain flooding 2 feet deep in a storm while its neighbor floods 6 feet deep in the same storm, and calls an elevation certificate a useful tool for estimating the potential depth of flooding at a structure.

Tallahassee's flood maps miss some flooding because the first maps only covered major ditches and creeks, and because many closed basins in Leon County are not shown on the FIRMs at all.

Leon County states that Leon County and the City of Tallahassee's first maps in the 1970's focused on the main drainage ditches and creeks where water level information was available, and that the maps are updated as the community grows and better information comes in. The county's floodplain page names Black Creek, Bradford Brook, Gum Creek, Munson Slough, the Ochlockonee River and the St. Marks River among the riverine systems in Leon County.

Rain and geology add flooding the maps do not show. The county's causes of flooding page says that with an average rainfall of approximately 60 inches per year, Tallahassee is very prone to heavy rain flooding. It defines a closed basin as an area that drains to a low area or sinkhole with no surface outlet, where flood water may stay at flood stage for weeks, months or years, and it states that, unlike the rivers and lakes in Leon County, many of the low areas and areas prone to closed basin flooding are not shown on the FIRMs.

Leon County's risk guide adds that, according to FEMA, approximately 25 percent of flood claims are filed by people living outside the Special Flood Hazard Area. For live conditions, the county's flood warning page says the Northwest Florida Water Management District runs rainfall gauges and water level recorders, many installed and operated through a contract with Leon County and the City of Tallahassee, and that rainfall in Leon County can vary by a surprising amount from north to south or east to west.

Flood insurance is federally required in Leon County when a home or building in a high-risk A or V zone carries a federally backed mortgage, and a lender can require it anywhere else.

Leon County's insurance page says the purchase of flood insurance is mandatory under federal law if the property has a federally backed mortgage on a home or building in a high-risk area, or if the owner received federal financial assistance after a presidentially declared disaster. Because Leon County participates in the National Flood Insurance Program, all county residents qualify to buy NFIP coverage, including Tallahassee residents. The county lists maximum standard policy limits of $250,000 for a single family home building and $100,000 for its contents ($500,000 each for businesses), $100,000 for renter contents, and typically a 30-day waiting period from purchase before a policy takes effect. The county's flood facts page adds that homeowners insurance very rarely covers flood damage.

The NFIP's federal authority is set by Congress and has lapsed before. The Leon County flood site still showed a notice, last updated October 7, 2025, that the program was temporarily paused as of September 30, 2025, pending action by Congress. FEMA now states that on Sept. 2, 2026, the president signed legislation extending the NFIP's authorization to Dec. 11, 2026, and that Congress must reauthorize it by 11:59 p.m. that day. FEMA says that during a lapse it would still pay valid claims with available funds but would stop selling and renewing policies, so the county's 2025 notice is out of date as of October 18, 2026.

In Leon County, sellers and landlords must disclose known flooding in writing, and new homes in or near a Special Flood Hazard Area must be built with the lowest floor at or above the flood protection elevation.

Leon County Code of Laws, Section 12-8(b), quoted on the county's flood hazard disclosure page, makes it unlawful for a seller or landlord of residential property, with knowledge that the property has experienced flooding or is otherwise floodprone, to fail to disclose such facts in writing to a prospective buyer or tenant. The county's elevation certificate page says DSEM maintains copies of elevation certificates collected since 1994, so a Leon County home built or substantially improved after 1994 may already have one on file; otherwise an owner may need to hire a surveyor or ask the prior owner.

Leon County's floodplain regulations page says the county adopted a Floodplain Management Ordinance, Section 10-8 of the Leon County Code of Laws, to meet its agreement with the NFIP, and that no development may take place in the Special Flood Hazard Areas without a DSEM permit. New construction in or near an SFHA must have the lowest floor, including basement, elevated to at least the flood protection elevation, which is generally 3 feet above the base flood elevation. Substantial improvement means work whose cumulative cost equals or exceeds 50 percent of the structure's market value, and manufactured homes in zones A1-30, AH and AE must be elevated on a permanent foundation to the same level.

Owners who think a Tallahassee or Leon County map is wrong can apply to FEMA. The county's map amendment page explains that a Letter of Map Amendment or Letter of Map Revision Based on Fill is an official FEMA determination of whether a property or structure is in an SFHA, filed online, and that applications typically need a recorded plat map or recorded deed with a tax parcel map plus elevation information on an Elevation Form or Elevation Certificate. Inside the city limits, the City of Tallahassee asks owners to check with the Growth Management Department before they build on, alter, regrade or place fill on a property, and to report building or filling without a posted city permit to its Environmental Services Division at 850-891-7150.