NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Charles Town, WV
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
24 tropical systems have passed within 75 miles of Charles Town, West Virginia since 1851, 3 of them at hurricane strength; the most recent was Sandy in 2012. Since 1950, 79 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 0 of them rated EF3 or stronger.
- Hurricanes
- 3
- Tropical storms
- 21
- Tornadoes
- 79
- 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 Charles Town
The strongest storm to pass near Charles Town was an unnamed storm in 1878, a Category 1 hurricane with 92 mph winds when its centre passed 40 miles away. The closest pass by a hurricane was an unnamed storm in 1893, whose centre came within 9 miles. The record near Charles Town begins with an unnamed storm in 1876; the most recent system was Sandy in 2012, a tropical storm 56 miles away. The busiest decade was the 1890s, with 5 systems, one of them at hurricane strength. Of the 24 systems, 3 have come since 2000. Charles Town is tied for the most hurricanes within 75 miles among the 161 West Virginia cities on this site. The highest rating among the 79 tornadoes within 25 miles is F2, reached 11 times; the most recent, on September 17, 2004, came within 16 miles. Of the 79, 4 had paths within 5 miles of the city centre, and 40 have come since 2000. June has had the most tornadoes, 24. The most recent tornado was on August 8, 2024. Charles Town has more tornadoes within 25 miles than 96% of the 161 West Virginia cities. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 74 times since 1975, with stones up to 2.75 inches (baseball size). Charles Town has more hail reports within 10 miles than 65% of the 161 West Virginia cities.
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Tropical storms and hurricanes near Charles Town
| Year | Storm | Closest | Strength when closest | Peak |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | SandyOct 30 | 56 mi | Tropical storm (58 mph) | Category 3 |
| 2006 | ErnestoSep 2 | 62 mi | Tropical storm (44 mph) | Category 1 |
| 2003 | IsabelSep 19 | 70 mi | Tropical storm (55 mph) | Category 5 |
| 1979 | DavidSep 6 | 24 mi | Tropical storm (46 mph) | Category 5 |
| 1955 | DianeAug 18 | 17 mi | Tropical storm (44 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1955 | ConnieAug 13 | 57 mi | Tropical storm (55 mph) | Category 4 |
| 1954 | HazelOct 15 | 22 mi | Category 1 (83 mph) | Category 4 |
| 1952 | AbleSep 1 | 22 mi | Tropical storm (55 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1949 | Unnamed 1949 stormAug 29 | 7 mi | Tropical storm (58 mph) | Category 4 |
| 1943 | Unnamed 1943 stormOct 1 | 58 mi | Tropical storm (41 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1934 | Unnamed 1934 stormJun 19 | 18 mi | Tropical storm (46 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1933 | Unnamed 1933 stormAug 24 | 39 mi | Tropical storm (60 mph) | Category 4 |
| 1929 | Unnamed 1929 stormOct 2 | 65 mi | Tropical storm (58 mph) | Category 4 |
| 1928 | Unnamed 1928 stormSep 20 | overhead | Tropical storm (48 mph) | Category 5 |
| 1915 | Unnamed 1915 stormAug 4 | 35 mi | Tropical storm (47 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1899 | Unnamed 1899 stormNov 1 | 73 mi | Tropical storm (58 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1896 | Unnamed 1896 stormSep 30 | 36 mi | Tropical storm (69 mph) | Category 3 |
| 1893 | Unnamed 1893 stormOct 23 | 30 mi | Tropical storm (41 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1893 | Unnamed 1893 stormOct 14 | 9 mi | Category 1 (74 mph) | Category 3 |
| 1893 | Unnamed 1893 stormAug 29 | 29 mi | Tropical storm (63 mph) | Category 3 |
| 1888 | Unnamed 1888 stormAug 21 | 62 mi | Tropical storm (48 mph) | Category 3 |
| 1885 | Unnamed 1885 stormOct 13 | 2 mi | Tropical storm (46 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1878 | Unnamed 1878 stormOct 23 | 40 mi | Category 1 (92 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1876 | Unnamed 1876 stormSep 18 | 12 mi | Tropical storm (64 mph) | Category 3 |
Strength is the sustained wind on the track at the closest point, which is not the wind felt in Charles Town: a hurricane's worst winds sit within a few dozen miles of its centre, and inland cities are usually past that.
Tornadoes within 25 miles of Charles Town
By decade
- 2020s11
- 2010s7
- 2000s22
- 1990s25
- 1980s3
- 1970s6
- 1960s2
- 1950s3
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 17, 2004 | F2 | 11 mi | 2 mi | 0 / 6 |
| Sep 17, 2004 | F2 | 14 mi | 3 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Sep 17, 2004 | F2 | 25 mi | 15 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Sep 17, 2004 | F2 | 16 mi | 5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jul 19, 1996 | F2 | 10 mi | 2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Nov 16, 1989 | F2 | 4 mi | 9 mi | 0 / 3 |
| Jun 3, 1980 | F2 | 22 mi | 2.7 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Sep 5, 1979 | F2 | 22 mi | 0.5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Sep 5, 1979 | F2 | 22 mi | 0.5 mi | 0 / 2 |
| Aug 4, 1975 | F2 | 10 mi | 0.8 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jul 13, 1961 | F2 | 18 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Aug 8, 2024 | EF1 | 15 mi | 4.76 mi | 0 / 0 |
The strongest 12 of 79, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.
Hail in Charles Town
The Storm Prediction Center has 74 hail reports within 10 miles of Charles Town since 1975, made on 47 separate days. Of these, 49 were 1 inch across or larger, and 2 reached 2 inches. The largest, 2.75 inches (baseball size), fell on May 26, 2002. The most recent report is from July 16, 2025. May has the most reports, 22.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Charles Town
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Martinsburg E Wv Regional Airport, WV, 11 miles northwest of Charles Town at 534 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 87°F and low of 65°F; January is the coolest, at 41°F and 24°F. May is the wettest at 4.1 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.1 inches; the year adds up to 39.0 inches over 73 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 52% of the year's precipitation (20.4 of 39.0 inches); the other six months are drier. October has brought the most of the 24 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (8); a normal October there has highs of 67°F and 3.0 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 26 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 104 nights a year. That 39.0 inches is more than at 5 of the 75 West Virginia stations used on this site (7%). Harpers Ferry, 4 miles east, has its own station (Sharpsburg 5 S, MD): 43.6 inches a year, 4.6 more than here, and a July average high of 86°F against 87°F.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip. in | Days ≥ 0.1" |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 41 | 24 | 2.6 | 6 |
| Feb | 45 | 25 | 2.1 | 5 |
| Mar | 54 | 32 | 3.4 | 7 |
| Apr | 65 | 42 | 3.4 | 7 |
| May | 74 | 51 | 4.1 | 8 |
| Jun | 82 | 60 | 3.9 | 7 |
| Jul | 87 | 65 | 3.8 | 6 |
| Aug | 85 | 63 | 3.0 | 6 |
| Sep | 78 | 55 | 4.0 | 6 |
| Oct | 67 | 44 | 3.0 | 5 |
| Nov | 55 | 34 | 2.7 | 5 |
| Dec | 45 | 27 | 3.0 | 6 |
| Year | 65 | 43 | 39.0 | 73 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Martinsburg E Wv Regional Airport, WV (534 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 Charles Town
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 357 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Charles Town: 286 thunderstorm wind reports, 61 floods and 10 flash floods. They killed 2 people and injured 4, and the NWS estimated $2.0 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 87 mph, on February 16, 2025. May has had the most flash floods, 4 of 10. Of the 161 West Virginia cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 17 have had fewer than Charles Town.
May 3, 2025: thunderstorm wind 2 miles from the centre of Charles Town — 1 killed, 1 injured, $10,000 damage.
NWS: “A tree blew down onto an occupied golf cart at Locust Hill Golf Course, killing one occupant and critically injuring another.”
May 14, 2002: thunderstorm wind 3 miles from the centre of Charles Town — 1 killed, $5,000 damage.
September 29, 1999: thunderstorm wind 1 mile from the centre of Charles Town — 1 injured, $40,000 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 Charles Town's ZIP code 25414 have filed 47 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $650,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Fran in 1996: 16 claims (34% of all) and $432,000, then Flooding in 1996 with 15. 70% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 131 West Virginia cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 55 have fewer than Charles Town.
| Event | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane Fran1996 | 16 | $432,000 |
| Flooding1996 | 15 | $149,000 |
Jefferson County, which includes Charles Town, has been named in 19 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1972, 13 of them major disasters (by incident: 6 severe storms, 4 snowstorms, 3 floods, 3 hurricanes). The latest major disaster declaration was Covid-19 Pandemic, on April 3, 2020. FEMA's National Risk Index gives Jefferson County a Relatively Low rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Relatively Moderate for strong wind; Relatively Low for hurricanes, tornadoes, hail, inland flooding, lightning and heat waves. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $18.7 million a year, the 18th highest of 55 West Virginia counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $12.8 million (69%), 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 Charles Town
- Ranson, WV1 mi
- Harpers Ferry, WV4 mi
- Shenandoah Junction, WV6 mi
- Kearneysville, WV6 mi
- Bunker Hill, WV10 mi
- Berryville, VA11 mi
- Inwood, WV11 mi
- Shepherdstown, WV11 mi
- Knoxville, MD12 mi
- Purcellville, VA12 mi
- Lovettsville, VA12 mi
- Clear Brook, VA12 mi
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