Guides
Storm guides
How the scales, seasons and records work, with figures counted from the NOAA data behind every city page.
Data: NOAA NHC HURDAT2 and NOAA SPC tornado and hail reports, through 2025 · Updated
Each guide takes one question — what a hurricane category means, which months bring storms, how hail is sized — and answers it with tables counted from the National Hurricane Center and Storm Prediction Center files this site is built from. Tables link to the city, storm and state pages they draw on.
Hurricanes
The Saffir-Simpson Scale, Counted Across US Cities
What each hurricane category means, and how many storms reached each one near a US city since 1851 — at their peak and at their closest pass.
Hurricane Season by Month: When Storms Reach US Cities
The month in which each tropical system came closest to a US city, from 1851 on, and how that compares with the official season dates.
Hurricanes Near US Cities by Decade, 1850s to 2020s
How many tropical systems, hurricanes and major hurricanes passed near US cities in each decade, and why the early counts are not directly comparable.
Why Storms Before 1950 Have No Names
How Atlantic storm naming began, how many unnamed storms in HURDAT2 came near US cities, and which of them were the strongest.
Pacific Hurricanes and Tropical Storms That Reached the US
Every eastern and central Pacific system since 1949 that passed within 75 miles of a US city — in Hawaii, California and Arizona.
How to Read a Hurricane Track: The HURDAT2 Database
What a best-track record contains, what the status codes mean, and how one track — Ivan in 2004 — reads line by line.
Tornadoes
The Fujita and Enhanced Fujita Scales in 73,000 Tornadoes
How tornadoes are rated, the wind ranges of the F and EF scales, how many US tornadoes since 1950 reached each rating, and every EF5.
The Deadliest US Tornadoes Since 1950
The tornadoes that killed the most people in the Storm Prediction Center record, the deadliest years, and how deaths split by rating.
Tornado Alley vs Dixie Alley, by the Numbers
The Plains and the Deep South compared on the SPC record: how many tornadoes, how strong, in which months, and how deadly.
Hail
Hail Size Chart: From Penny to Grapefruit, With 400,000 Reports
The object sizes forecasters use for hail, how often each size is reported, and the largest stones in the Storm Prediction Center record.
All storms
States Ranked by Hurricanes, Tornadoes and Hail
Every state and territory on this site ranked by tropical systems near its cities, tornadoes since 1950 and hail reports since 1955.
2025 in Numbers: Hurricanes, Tornadoes and Hail
The 2025 storm year from the NOAA files: Atlantic and Pacific storms, US tornadoes by rating and month, and hail reports.