NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Kent, 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 Kent, Washington since records began in 1851. Since 1950, 13 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 1 of them rated EF3 or stronger.
- Hurricanes
- 0
- Tropical storms
- 0
- Tornadoes
- 13
- 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 Kent
The strongest of the 13 tornadoes within 25 miles was an F3 on December 12, 1969; its path came within 11 miles. Of the 13, none 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. Kent has more tornadoes within 25 miles than 77% of the 226 Washington cities on this site.
Compare Kent's storm record with another city →
Tornadoes within 25 miles of Kent
By decade
- 2010s3
- 2000s3
- 1990s2
- 1970s2
- 1960s3(1 EF3+)
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 12, 1969 | F3 | 11 mi | 3.8 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Dec 18, 2018 | EF2 | 21 mi | 1.35 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jan 18, 2015 | EF1 | 18 mi | 4.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Sep 30, 2013 | EF1 | 21 mi | 1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Sep 6, 2009 | EF1 | 14 mi | 9.6 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jun 27, 2001 | F1 | 14 mi | 2.3 mi | 0 / 0 |
| May 31, 1997 | F1 | 15 mi | 0.5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jun 12, 1978 | F1 | 19 mi | 1.5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 22, 1971 | F1 | 6 mi | 0.5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Sep 28, 1962 | F1 | 9 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jun 11, 2001 | F0 | 21 mi | — | 0 / 0 |
| Jun 23, 1996 | F0 | 14 mi | 0.4 mi | 0 / 0 |
The strongest 12 of 13, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.
Hail in Kent
The Storm Prediction Center has no hail reports within 10 miles of Kent since 1955.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Kent
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Kent, WA, 3 miles northwest of Kent at 30 feet. July and August are the warmest, with an average high of 78°F and low of 57°F; December is the coolest, at 47°F and 35°F. November is the wettest at 6.2 inches of precipitation on average and July the driest at 0.7 inches; the year adds up to 40.3 inches over 97 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 39 nights a year. That 40.3 inches is more than at 49 of the 86 Washington stations used on this site (57%). Des Moines, 5 miles west, has its own station (Seattle Tacoma International Airport, WA): 39.5 inches a year, 0.8 less than here, and a July average high of 77°F against 78°F.
Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Tacoma, WA, 12 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, 16 miles from Kent, 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" | Water °F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 48 | 36 | 5.8 | 13 | 49 |
| Feb | 51 | 36 | 4.0 | 10 | 48 |
| Mar | 56 | 39 | 4.4 | 11 | 48 |
| Apr | 61 | 43 | 3.1 | 9 | 49 |
| May | 68 | 49 | 2.1 | 6 | 51 |
| Jun | 72 | 53 | 1.7 | 5 | 53 |
| Jul | 78 | 57 | 0.7 | 2 | 55 |
| Aug | 78 | 57 | 0.9 | 3 | 56 |
| Sep | 73 | 52 | 1.5 | 4 | 56 |
| Oct | 61 | 46 | 4.1 | 9 | 55 |
| Nov | 53 | 39 | 6.2 | 12 | 53 |
| Dec | 47 | 35 | 5.8 | 12 | 51 |
| Year | 62 | 45 | 40.3 | 97 | 52 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Kent, WA (30 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 Kent
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 9 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Kent: 3 heavy rain events, 3 lightning strikes, 2 thunderstorm wind reports and 1 flood. They killed 1 person and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $3.1 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 45 mph, on May 13, 2013.
January 6, 2022: heavy rain event 8 miles from the centre of Kent — 1 killed.
July 13, 2012: lightning strike 8 miles from the centre of Kent — 1 injured, $1,000 damage.
December 12, 2010: flood 7 miles from the centre of Kent — $3.0 million 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 Kent's 3 ZIP codes have filed 52 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1980, and were paid $1.1 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from 2025-12-AtmosphericRiver in 2025: 14 claims (27% of all) and $793,000. 48% 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, 66 have fewer than Kent.
| Event | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-12-AtmosphericRiver2025 | 14 | $793,000 |
King County, which includes Kent, 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.