NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Anchorage, AK
Every tropical system within 75 miles since 1851 and every tornado within 25 miles since 1950.
Data: NOAA NHC HURDAT2 and NOAA SPC tornado and hail reports, through 2025 · Updated
No tropical storm or hurricane has passed within 75 miles of Anchorage, Alaska since records began in 1851. Since 1950, 1 tornado has touched down within 25 miles, 0 of them rated EF3 or stronger.
- Hurricanes
- 0
- Tropical storms
- 0
- Tornadoes
- 1
- EF3 or stronger
- 0
within 75 mi, since 1851
below hurricane strength
within 25 mi, since 1950
no recorded deaths
What the records show for Anchorage
The only tornado within 25 miles was an EF0 on April 19, 2024; its path came within 7 miles. Anchorage is tied for the most tornadoes within 25 miles among the 5 Alaska cities on this site. Hail has been reported within 10 miles once, in 2005, with stones of 0.75 inches (penny size). Anchorage is tied for the most hail reports within 10 miles among the 5 Alaska cities.
Compare Anchorage's storm record with another city →
Tornadoes within 25 miles of Anchorage
By decade
- 2020s1
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 19, 2024 | EF0 | 7 mi | 0.01 mi | 0 / 0 |
The strongest 1 of 1, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.
Hail in Anchorage
The Storm Prediction Center has one hail report within 10 miles of Anchorage, from July 6, 2005: 0.75 inches (penny size).
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Anchorage
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Anchorage Merrill Field, AK, 3 miles north of Anchorage at 138 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 68°F and low of 54°F; January is the coolest, at 23°F and 8°F. September is the wettest at 3.0 inches of precipitation on average and April the driest at 0.3 inches; the year adds up to 14.2 inches over 43 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs of 90°F are rare: fewer than one day a year on average. Lows fall below freezing on about 184 nights a year. That 14.2 inches is more than at 0 of the 5 Alaska stations used on this site (0%). Jber, 6 miles northeast, has its own station (Fort Richardson Wtp, AK): 15.9 inches a year, 1.7 more than here, and a July average high of 66°F against 68°F.
Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Anchorage, AK, 5 miles north, averaged 57°F in July and 30°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Anchorage tide gauge, 5 miles from Anchorage, has fallen 0.27 ± 0.16 inches per decade from 1972 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 2.7 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 13 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip. in | Days ≥ 0.1" | Water °F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 23 | 8 | 0.5 | 2 | 30 |
| Feb | 28 | 12 | 0.7 | 2 | 30 |
| Mar | 34 | 17 | 0.5 | 2 | 31 |
| Apr | 47 | 30 | 0.3 | 1 | 34 |
| May | 58 | 41 | 0.6 | 2 | 45 |
| Jun | 66 | 50 | 1.0 | 3 | 54 |
| Jul | 68 | 54 | 1.7 | 6 | 57 |
| Aug | 66 | 51 | 2.5 | 8 | 57 |
| Sep | 57 | 43 | 3.0 | 8 | 52 |
| Oct | 43 | 30 | 1.6 | 5 | 44 |
| Nov | 29 | 16 | 0.9 | 2 | 34 |
| Dec | 25 | 11 | 0.9 | 3 | 31 |
| Year | 45 | 30 | 14.2 | 43 | 42 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Anchorage Merrill Field, AK (138 ft), from NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals; water temperature: average of hourly readings 2021–2025 at the NOAA tide station Anchorage, AK, from NOAA Tides & Currents. Normals describe the station; the farther a place is from it, and the bigger the difference in height, the more its weather can differ.
Floods, thunderstorm wind and lightning near Anchorage
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 14 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Anchorage: 13 floods and 1 flash flood. None is recorded as killing or injuring anyone; the NWS estimated $3.6 million in property and crop damage.
September 20, 2012: flood 7 miles from the centre of Anchorage — $3.6 million damage.
Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, events whose starting point is on record, 1996 to June 30, 2026. Damage is the NWS estimate in the dollars of the year, not insured losses, and NWS notes that some reports are unverified.
Flood insurance claims, disaster declarations and FEMA risk ratings
Flood insurance policyholders in Anchorage's 11 ZIP codes have filed 69 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $234,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year.
Anchorage Municipality, which includes Anchorage, has been named in 7 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1995, 5 of them major disasters (by incident: 2 biological emergencies, 2 earthquakes, 2 severe storms, 1 flood). The latest major disaster declaration was Covid-19 Pandemic, on April 9, 2020. FEMA's National Risk Index gives Anchorage Municipality a Relatively High rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Relatively Low for lightning; Very Low for tornadoes, hail, inland flooding and coastal flooding. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $366.8 million a year, the highest of 30 Alaska counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $201,000 (0%), is from lightning.
Claims: FEMA, OpenFEMA Dataset FIMA NFIP Redacted Claims – v3, summed over ZIP codes; payments in the dollars of each year, not adjusted for inflation. Declarations: Disaster Declarations Summaries – v2, by county. Retrieved October 25, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).
Risk ratings: FEMA, National Risk Index county table, December 2025 (v1.20), retrieved October 26, 2026; ratings compare counties nationwide, are meant for planning and are no substitute for a local risk assessment. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Risk Index dataset API or downloadable datasets but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).
What counts as a pass, the distances and the sources: how this storm history is built.
Cities near Anchorage
- Jber, AK6 mi
- Eagle River, AK14 mi
- Chugiak, AK22 mi
- Bethel, AK404 mi
- Blaine, WA1348 mi
- Custer, WA1352 mi
- Ferndale, WA1357 mi
- Lynden, WA1357 mi
- Sumas, WA1363 mi
- Everson, WA1363 mi
- Bellingham, WA1367 mi
- Maple Falls, WA1368 mi
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