About Storms That Hit

What this site publishes

For every US city with more than 2,000 people, the hurricanes and tropical storms whose track passed within 75 miles since 1851 and the tornadoes that touched down within 25 miles since 1950 — how close each came, how strong it was at that point, and when.

Why it exists

The underlying data is public and free, but it is published for analysts rather than for readers: bulk files, codebooks, and lookup tools that expect you to know the identifier already. This site does the matching and the arithmetic, then states the answer in a sentence at the top of the page.

Where the figures come from

The National Hurricane Center's HURDAT2 best-track database and the Storm Prediction Center's tornado database, both published by NOAA. Distances are measured from the city centre to the track.

Nothing here is estimated, modelled or generated. Every number traces to a published federal record.

What it is not

Closeness to a track is not the same as damage: the worst winds sit within a few dozen miles of a hurricane's centre, and older tornado records under-count weak tornadoes in open country. Nothing here is a forecast or a risk rating.

Corrections

If a page contradicts the official source, the official source is right and we want to know. Write to us from the contact page.