NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Bellingham, WA
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 Bellingham, Washington 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 Bellingham
The only tornado within 25 miles was an F0 on April 27, 2004; its path came within 21 miles. Of the 226 Washington cities on this site, 90% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than Bellingham.
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Tornadoes within 25 miles of Bellingham
By decade
- 2000s1
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 27, 2004 | F0 | 21 mi | 2.7 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 Bellingham
The Storm Prediction Center has no hail reports within 10 miles of Bellingham since 1955.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Bellingham
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Bellingham 3 SSW, WA, 3 miles southwest of Bellingham at 15 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 75°F and low of 54°F; December is the coolest, at 47°F and 35°F. November is the wettest at 5.7 inches of precipitation on average and July the driest at 1.0 inches; the year adds up to 36.1 inches over 95 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 43 nights a year. Snowfall averages 3.4 inches a year, most of it in January. That 36.1 inches is more than at 44 of the 86 Washington stations used on this site (51%). Ferndale, 10 miles northwest, has its own station (Bellingham International Airport, WA): 34.8 inches a year, 1.3 less than here, and a July average high of 73°F against 75°F.
Sea level at the Cherry Point tide gauge, 16 miles from Bellingham, has fallen 0.02 ± 0.11 inches per decade from 1973 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 0.2 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 17 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip. in | Days ≥ 0.1" | Snow in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 48 | 35 | 4.6 | 12 | 1.1 |
| Feb | 50 | 35 | 3.1 | 9 | 0.6 |
| Mar | 54 | 38 | 3.4 | 10 | 0.5 |
| Apr | 59 | 42 | 2.8 | 8 | 0.0 |
| May | 66 | 46 | 2.3 | 6 | 0.0 |
| Jun | 70 | 51 | 1.7 | 6 | 0.0 |
| Jul | 75 | 54 | 1.0 | 2 | 0.0 |
| Aug | 75 | 54 | 1.1 | 3 | 0.0 |
| Sep | 69 | 50 | 2.0 | 5 | 0.0 |
| Oct | 60 | 44 | 3.9 | 9 | 0.1 |
| Nov | 52 | 39 | 5.7 | 13 | 0.8 |
| Dec | 47 | 35 | 4.5 | 12 | 0.3 |
| Year | 60 | 43 | 36.1 | 95 | 3.4 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Bellingham 3 SSW, WA (15 ft), from NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals. 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 Bellingham
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 5 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Bellingham: 4 heavy rain events and 1 flood. They killed 1 person and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $3.1 million in property and crop damage.
November 28, 2021: flood 5 miles from the centre of Bellingham — 1 killed, $3.0 million damage.
NWS: “Flooding of minor category occurred on the Skagit and Samish Rivers, as well as other streams and urban areas.”
November 15, 2021: heavy rain event 6 miles from the centre of Bellingham — 1 injured, $75,000 damage.
NWS: “Heavy rain on already saturated soil cause several landslide over I-5 blocking lanes, striking vehicles, and causing collisions. Road damage occurred as well.”
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 Bellingham's 3 ZIP codes have filed 120 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $4.0 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1990: 17 claims (14% of all) and $176,000. The year with the most claims was 2021, with 15. 21% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 128 Washington cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 95 have fewer than Bellingham.
| Event | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Flooding1990 | 17 | $176,000 |
Whatcom County, which includes Bellingham, has been named in 27 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1971, 23 of them major disasters (by incident: 13 floods, 6 severe storms, 2 biological emergencies, 2 fires). The latest major disaster declaration was Severe Storms, Straight-Line Winds, Flooding, Landslides, and Mudslides, on April 7, 2026. FEMA's National Risk Index gives Whatcom County a Relatively Moderate rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Relatively Moderate for inland flooding, coastal flooding, lightning and heat waves; Very Low for tornadoes, hail and strong wind. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $111.5 million a year, the 9th highest of 39 Washington counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $40.4 million (36%), is from inland flooding.
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 Bellingham
- Ferndale, WA10 mi
- Maple Falls, WA12 mi
- Everson, WA12 mi
- Bow, WA13 mi
- Lynden, WA14 mi
- Custer, WA15 mi
- Deming, WA16 mi
- Burlington, WA19 mi
- Anacortes, WA19 mi
- Sumas, WA19 mi
- Blaine, WA20 mi
- Sedro Woolley, WA21 mi
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