NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Dover, FL
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
67 tropical systems have passed within 75 miles of Dover, Florida since 1851, 24 of them at hurricane strength; the most recent was Milton in 2024. Since 1950, 256 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 1 of them rated EF3 or stronger.
- Hurricanes
- 24
- Tropical storms
- 43
- Tornadoes
- 256
- EF3 or stronger
- 1
within 75 mi, since 1851
below hurricane strength
within 25 mi, since 1950
14 deaths in all
What the records show for Dover
The strongest storm to pass near Dover was an unnamed storm in 1935, a Category 3 hurricane with 124 mph winds when its centre passed 60 miles away. The closest pass by a hurricane was an unnamed storm in 1944, whose centre came within 1 mile. The record near Dover begins with an unnamed storm in 1852; the most recent system was Milton in 2024, a Category 2 hurricane 22 miles away. The 1870s and the 1940s were the busiest decades, with 7 systems each. Of the 67 systems, 10 have come since 2000. Of the 407 Florida cities on this site, 52% have more hurricanes within 75 miles than Dover. The strongest of the 256 tornadoes within 25 miles was an F4 on April 4, 1966; its path came within 5 miles, and it killed 11 people. Of the 256, 12 had paths within 5 miles of the city centre, and 59 have come since 2000. June has had the most tornadoes, 48. The most recent tornado was on August 8, 2025. Dover has more tornadoes within 25 miles than 94% of the 407 Florida cities. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 99 times since 1960, with stones up to 3 inches (tea cup size). Dover has more hail reports within 10 miles than 87% of the 407 Florida cities.
Compare Dover's storm record with another city →
Tropical storms and hurricanes near Dover
| Year | Storm | Closest | Strength when closest | Peak |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | MiltonOct 10 | 22 mi | Category 2 (100 mph) | Category 5 |
| 2022 | NicoleNov 10 | 26 mi | Tropical storm (59 mph) | Category 1 |
| 2022 | IanSep 29 | 61 mi | Category 2 (104 mph) | Category 5 |
| 2020 | EtaNov 12 | 73 mi | Tropical storm (60 mph) | Category 4 |
| 2017 | IrmaSep 11 | 5 mi | Category 1 (77 mph) | Category 5 |
| 2017 | EmilyJul 31 | 34 mi | Tropical storm (40 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 2004 | JeanneSep 26 | 12 mi | Tropical storm (70 mph) | Category 3 |
| 2004 | FrancesSep 5 | 4 mi | Tropical storm (64 mph) | Category 4 |
| 2004 | CharleyAug 13 | 32 mi | Category 2 (99 mph) | Category 4 |
| 2001 | GabrielleSep 14 | 19 mi | Tropical storm (55 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1995 | JerryAug 24 | 37 mi | Tropical storm (39 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1995 | ErinAug 2 | 20 mi | Tropical storm (59 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1990 | MarcoOct 11 | 42 mi | Tropical storm (53 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1988 | KeithNov 23 | 31 mi | Tropical storm (52 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1984 | IsidoreSep 28 | 21 mi | Tropical storm (52 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1982 | Unnamed 1982 stormJun 18 | 60 mi | Tropical storm (45 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1968 | GladysOct 19 | 55 mi | Category 2 (98 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1968 | AbbyJun 4 | 47 mi | Tropical storm (52 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1966 | Unnamed 1966 stormJul 1 | 50 mi | Tropical storm (46 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1960 | DonnaSep 11 | 27 mi | Category 1 (84 mph) | Category 4 |
| 1959 | Unnamed 1959 stormJun 18 | 17 mi | Tropical storm (46 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1950 | KingOct 18 | 54 mi | Category 1 (84 mph) | Category 4 |
| 1950 | EasySep 6 | 16 mi | Tropical storm (69 mph) | Category 3 |
| 1949 | Unnamed 1949 stormAug 27 | 11 mi | Category 1 (77 mph) | Category 4 |
| 1947 | Unnamed 1947 stormSep 23 | 50 mi | Tropical storm (63 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1946 | Unnamed 1946 stormOct 8 | 21 mi | Category 1 (81 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1945 | Unnamed 1945 stormSep 16 | 28 mi | Category 1 (84 mph) | Category 4 |
| 1945 | Unnamed 1945 stormJun 24 | 52 mi | Category 1 (79 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1944 | Unnamed 1944 stormOct 19 | 1 mi | Category 1 (92 mph) | Category 4 |
| 1941 | Unnamed 1941 stormOct 6 | 67 mi | Category 1 (75 mph) | Category 3 |
| 1939 | Unnamed 1939 stormAug 12 | 4 mi | Tropical storm (59 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1937 | Unnamed 1937 stormJul 30 | 28 mi | Tropical storm (52 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1935 | Unnamed 1935 stormSep 4 | 60 mi | Category 3 (124 mph) | Category 5 |
| 1933 | Unnamed 1933 stormSep 4 | 12 mi | Tropical storm (67 mph) | Category 4 |
| 1933 | Unnamed 1933 stormJul 31 | 68 mi | Tropical storm (46 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1930 | Unnamed 1930 stormSep 9 | 17 mi | Tropical storm (40 mph) | Category 4 |
| 1928 | Unnamed 1928 stormSep 17 | 10 mi | Category 1 (94 mph) | Category 5 |
| 1928 | Unnamed 1928 stormAug 13 | 69 mi | Tropical storm (60 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1928 | Unnamed 1928 stormAug 9 | 28 mi | Tropical storm (47 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1921 | Unnamed 1921 stormOct 25 | 28 mi | Category 2 (104 mph) | Category 4 |
| 1920 | Unnamed 1920 stormSep 30 | 75 mi | Tropical storm (62 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1916 | Unnamed 1916 stormMay 15 | 14 mi | Tropical storm (43 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1910 | Unnamed 1910 stormOct 18 | 19 mi | Category 1 (74 mph) | Category 4 |
| 1909 | Unnamed 1909 stormJun 29 | 22 mi | Tropical storm (40 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1903 | Unnamed 1903 stormSep 12 | 38 mi | Tropical storm (60 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1901 | Unnamed 1901 stormAug 11 | 72 mi | Tropical storm (49 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1899 | Unnamed 1899 stormOct 5 | 13 mi | Tropical storm (46 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1898 | Unnamed 1898 stormAug 2 | 8 mi | Tropical storm (39 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1897 | Unnamed 1897 stormSep 21 | 37 mi | Tropical storm (55 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1894 | Unnamed 1894 stormSep 26 | 36 mi | Category 1 (82 mph) | Category 3 |
| 1892 | Unnamed 1892 stormOct 24 | 17 mi | Tropical storm (49 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1888 | Unnamed 1888 stormSep 8 | 6 mi | Tropical storm (44 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1887 | Unnamed 1887 stormOct 30 | 27 mi | Tropical storm (45 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1886 | Unnamed 1886 stormJul 18 | 52 mi | Category 1 (81 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1880 | Unnamed 1880 stormOct 8 | 67 mi | Category 1 (81 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1880 | Unnamed 1880 stormAug 30 | 36 mi | Tropical storm (69 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1879 | Unnamed 1879 stormOct 27 | 75 mi | Tropical storm (69 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1878 | Unnamed 1878 stormSep 10 | 48 mi | Category 2 (104 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1873 | Unnamed 1873 stormOct 7 | 75 mi | Category 2 (105 mph) | Category 3 |
| 1873 | Unnamed 1873 stormSep 23 | 22 mi | Tropical storm (56 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1872 | Unnamed 1872 stormOct 23 | 11 mi | Tropical storm (53 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1871 | Unnamed 1871 stormAug 25 | 51 mi | Tropical storm (70 mph) | Category 3 |
| 1871 | Unnamed 1871 stormAug 17 | 38 mi | Category 1 (81 mph) | Category 3 |
| 1859 | Unnamed 1859 stormOct 28 | 3 mi | Category 1 (90 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1859 | Unnamed 1859 stormOct 18 | 60 mi | Tropical storm (46 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1858 | Unnamed 1858 stormSep 14 | 11 mi | Tropical storm (60 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1852 | Unnamed 1852 stormSep 12 | 8 mi | Tropical storm (70 mph) | Category 1 |
Strength is the sustained wind on the track at the closest point, which is not the wind felt in Dover: 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 Dover
By decade
- 2020s6
- 2010s22
- 2000s31
- 1990s64
- 1980s32
- 1970s65
- 1960s27(1 EF3+)
- 1950s9
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 4, 1966 | F4 | 5 mi | 135.8 mi | 11 / 530 |
| Jan 17, 2016 | EF2 | 24 mi | 9.2 mi | 2 / 4 |
| Dec 7, 1996 | F2 | 12 mi | 2 mi | 1 / 0 |
| Dec 16, 2020 | EF2 | 21 mi | 13.11 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Oct 18, 2019 | EF2 | 10 mi | 11.45 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Sep 10, 2017 | EF2 | 23 mi | 0.59 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 25, 2006 | F2 | 23 mi | 0.83 mi | 0 / 2 |
| Feb 8, 1986 | F2 | 25 mi | 2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Feb 2, 1983 | F2 | in town | 4 mi | 0 / 2 |
| Dec 1, 1978 | F2 | 13 mi | 0.6 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 1, 1978 | F2 | 21 mi | 0.8 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jan 8, 1978 | F2 | in town | 10 mi | 0 / 2 |
The strongest 12 of 256, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.
Hail in Dover
The Storm Prediction Center has 99 hail reports within 10 miles of Dover since 1960, made on 83 separate days. Of these, 59 were 1 inch across or larger, and one reached 2 inches. The largest, 3 inches (tea cup size), fell on April 24, 2023. The most recent report is from June 2, 2025. June has the most reports, 29.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Dover
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Plant City, FL, 5 miles northeast of Dover at 110 feet. July and August are the warmest, with an average high of 94°F and low of 73°F; January is the coolest, at 75°F and 50°F. June is the wettest at 9.7 inches of precipitation on average and November the driest at 1.8 inches; the year adds up to 56.2 inches over 79 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 69% of the year's precipitation (38.7 of 56.2 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 67 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (23); a normal September there has highs of 92°F and 7.0 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 111 days a year, almost all from April to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 3 nights a year. That 56.2 inches is more than at 79 of the 125 Florida stations used on this site (63%). Temple Terrace, 11 miles west, has its own station (Tampa International Airport, FL): 49.6 inches a year, 6.6 less than here, and a July average high of 91°F against 94°F.
Water temperature at the NOAA tide station East Bay, FL, 13 miles west, averaged 89°F in July and 64°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from May to October. Sea level at the East Bay tide gauge, 13 miles from Dover, has risen 2.17 ± 0.16 inches per decade from 1976 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 21.7 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 125 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip. in | Days ≥ 0.1" | Water °F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 75 | 50 | 3.0 | 4 | 64 |
| Feb | 78 | 53 | 2.3 | 4 | 67 |
| Mar | 81 | 56 | 2.8 | 4 | 74 |
| Apr | 86 | 61 | 2.9 | 4 | 78 |
| May | 91 | 67 | 4.0 | 5 | 84 |
| Jun | 93 | 72 | 9.7 | 12 | 87 |
| Jul | 94 | 73 | 8.7 | 13 | 89 |
| Aug | 94 | 74 | 8.9 | 13 | 89 |
| Sep | 92 | 72 | 7.0 | 9 | 86 |
| Oct | 87 | 66 | 2.6 | 5 | 80 |
| Nov | 81 | 58 | 1.8 | 3 | 74 |
| Dec | 77 | 53 | 2.5 | 4 | 68 |
| Year | 86 | 63 | 56.2 | 79 | 78 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Plant City, FL (110 ft), from NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals; water temperature: average of hourly readings 2021–2025 at the NOAA tide station East Bay, FL, 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 Dover
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 102 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Dover: 81 thunderstorm wind reports, 10 lightning strikes, 6 heavy rain events, 4 floods and 1 flash flood. They killed 2 people and injured 26, and the NWS estimated $4.3 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 86 mph, on June 26, 1997.
June 21, 1998: thunderstorm wind 6 miles from the centre of Dover — 1 killed, $1,000 damage.
May 14, 2014: lightning strike 5 miles from the centre of Dover — 1 killed.
NWS: “A 71 year old man was fishing in a lake at Edward Medard Park when he was apparently struck and killed by lightning. The man was found face down in the water just after 7 PM with signs of electrocution.”
February 5, 2010: thunderstorm wind 9 miles from the centre of Dover — 13 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 Dover's ZIP code 33527 have filed 79 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1998, and were paid $4.6 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Milton in 2024: 51 claims (65% of all) and $3.9 million, then Hurricane Irma in 2017 with 10. 84% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 340 Florida cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 95 have fewer than Dover.
| Event | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane Milton2024 | 51 | $3.9 million |
| Hurricane Irma2017 | 10 | $365,000 |
Hillsborough County, which includes Dover, has been named in 47 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1968, 27 of them major disasters (by incident: 21 hurricanes, 7 severe storms, 5 fires, 5 tropical storms). The latest major disaster declaration was Hurricane Milton, on October 11, 2024. FEMA's National Risk Index gives Hillsborough County a Relatively High rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Very High for hurricanes, tornadoes and lightning; Relatively High for hail, inland flooding, coastal flooding and heat waves; Relatively Moderate for strong wind. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $494.6 million a year, the 4th highest of 67 Florida counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $178.3 million (36%), is from hurricanes.
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.