NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Des Moines, 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 Des Moines, Washington since records began in 1851. Since 1950, 14 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 1 of them rated EF3 or stronger.
- Hurricanes
- 0
- Tropical storms
- 0
- Tornadoes
- 14
- EF3 or stronger
- 1
within 75 mi, since 1851
below hurricane strength
within 25 mi, since 1950
no recorded deaths
What the records show for Des Moines
The strongest of the 14 tornadoes within 25 miles was an F3 on December 12, 1969; its path came within 8 miles. Of the 14, one had a path within 5 miles of the city centre, and 6 have come since 2000. June has had the most tornadoes, 4. The most recent tornado was on December 18, 2018. Des Moines has more tornadoes within 25 miles than 84% of the 226 Washington cities on this site.
Compare Des Moines's storm record with another city →
Tornadoes within 25 miles of Des Moines
By decade
- 2010s3
- 2000s3
- 1990s3
- 1970s2
- 1960s3(1 EF3+)
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 12, 1969 | F3 | 8 mi | 3.8 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Dec 18, 2018 | EF2 | 16 mi | 1.35 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jan 18, 2015 | EF1 | 14 mi | 4.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Sep 30, 2013 | EF1 | 21 mi | 1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Sep 6, 2009 | EF1 | 17 mi | 9.6 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jun 27, 2001 | F1 | 16 mi | 2.3 mi | 0 / 0 |
| May 31, 1997 | F1 | 13 mi | 0.5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jun 12, 1978 | F1 | 19 mi | 1.5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 22, 1971 | F1 | in town | 0.5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Sep 28, 1962 | F1 | 7 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jun 11, 2001 | F0 | 17 mi | — | 0 / 0 |
| Jun 23, 1996 | F0 | 11 mi | 0.4 mi | 0 / 0 |
The strongest 12 of 14, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.
Hail in Des Moines
The Storm Prediction Center has no hail reports within 10 miles of Des Moines since 1955.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Des Moines
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Seattle Tacoma International Airport, WA, 3 miles north of Des Moines at 370 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 78°F and low of 57°F; December is the coolest, at 47°F and 37°F. November is the wettest at 6.3 inches of precipitation on average and July the driest at 0.6 inches; the year adds up to 39.5 inches over 93 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 4 days a year, almost all from July to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 25 nights a year. Snowfall averages 6.3 inches a year, most of it in February. That 39.5 inches is more than at 47 of the 86 Washington stations used on this site (55%). Kent, 5 miles east, has its own station (Kent, WA): 40.3 inches a year, 0.8 more than here, and the same August average high, 78°F.
Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Tacoma, WA, 10 miles southwest, averaged 56°F in September and 48°F in March over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Seattle tide gauge, 14 miles from Des Moines, has risen 0.82 ± 0.03 inches per decade from 1899 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 8.2 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 42 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip. in | Days ≥ 0.1" | Snow in | Water °F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 48 | 38 | 5.8 | 13 | 1.8 | 49 |
| Feb | 50 | 38 | 3.8 | 9 | 2.2 | 48 |
| Mar | 54 | 40 | 4.2 | 11 | 0.4 | 48 |
| Apr | 59 | 43 | 3.2 | 9 | 0.0 | 49 |
| May | 66 | 49 | 1.9 | 6 | 0.0 | 51 |
| Jun | 71 | 53 | 1.5 | 4 | 0.0 | 53 |
| Jul | 77 | 57 | 0.6 | 2 | 0.0 | 55 |
| Aug | 78 | 57 | 1.0 | 2 | 0.0 | 56 |
| Sep | 72 | 54 | 1.6 | 4 | 0.0 | 56 |
| Oct | 61 | 47 | 3.9 | 8 | 0.0 | 55 |
| Nov | 52 | 41 | 6.3 | 13 | 0.2 | 53 |
| Dec | 47 | 37 | 5.7 | 12 | 1.7 | 51 |
| Year | 61 | 46 | 39.5 | 93 | 6.3 | 52 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Seattle Tacoma International Airport, WA (370 ft), from NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals; water temperature: average of hourly readings 2021–2025 at the NOAA tide station Tacoma, WA, 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 Des Moines
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 6 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Des Moines: 3 lightning strikes, 2 heavy rain events and 1 thunderstorm wind report. They killed 0 people and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $59,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 45 mph, on May 13, 2013.
July 13, 2012: lightning strike 10 miles from the centre of Des Moines — 1 injured, $1,000 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 Des Moines's ZIP code 98198 have filed 22 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1990, and were paid $289,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. 18% 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, 27 have fewer than Des Moines.
King County, which includes Des Moines, has been named in 35 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1964, 31 of them major disasters (by incident: 17 floods, 11 severe storms, 2 biological emergencies, 2 earthquakes). 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 King County a Very High rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Very High for inland flooding; Relatively High for heat waves; Relatively Moderate for tornadoes, coastal flooding and lightning; Very Low for hail and strong wind. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $1.68 billion a year, the highest of 39 Washington counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $416.9 million (25%), 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 Des Moines
- Burien, WA4 mi
- Kent, WA5 mi
- Tukwila, WA5 mi
- Federal Way, WA6 mi
- Vashon, WA7 mi
- Auburn, WA8 mi
- Pacific, WA10 mi
- Covington, WA10 mi
- Renton, WA10 mi
- Milton, WA10 mi
- Fife, WA11 mi
- Olalla, WA12 mi
All Washington cities →All hurricanes since 1851 →Compare Des Moines with another place →