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NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database

Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Lynn, MA

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

47 tropical systems have passed within 75 miles of Lynn, Massachusetts since 1851, 10 of them at hurricane strength; the most recent was Elsa in 2021. Since 1950, 33 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 1 of them rated EF3 or stronger.

Hurricanes
10

within 75 mi, since 1851

Tropical storms
37

below hurricane strength

Tornadoes
33

within 25 mi, since 1950

EF3 or stronger
1

1 deaths in all

What the records show for Lynn

The strongest storm to pass near Lynn was an unnamed storm in 1869, a Category 2 hurricane with 104 mph winds when its centre passed 34 miles away. The closest pass by a hurricane was an unnamed storm in 1869, whose centre came within 14 miles. The record near Lynn begins with an unnamed storm in 1851; the most recent system was Elsa in 2021, a tropical storm 21 miles away. The 1870s and the 1960s were the busiest decades, with 5 systems each. Of the 47 systems, 5 have come since 2000. Of the 346 Massachusetts cities on this site, 51% have more hurricanes within 75 miles than Lynn. The strongest of the 33 tornadoes within 25 miles was an F3 on September 29, 1974; its path came within 16 miles. The deadliest, an F1 on August 9, 1972, killed 1 person. Of the 33, 3 had paths within 5 miles of the city centre, and 3 have come since 2000. July has had the most tornadoes, 11. The most recent tornado was on August 18, 2023. Of the 346 Massachusetts cities, 72% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than Lynn. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 68 times since 1966, with stones up to 3 inches (tea cup size). Lynn has more hail reports within 10 miles than 71% of the 346 Massachusetts cities.

Compare Lynn's storm record with another city →

Tropical storms and hurricanes near Lynn

Tropical systems that passed within 75 miles of Lynn, Massachusetts, newest first
YearStormClosestStrength when closestPeak
2021ElsaJul 921 miTropical storm (51 mph)Category 1
2013AndreaJun 824 miTropical storm (46 mph)Tropical storm
2008HannaSep 711 miTropical storm (52 mph)Category 1
2007BarryJun 59 miTropical storm (40 mph)Tropical storm
2004HermineAug 3167 miTropical storm (40 mph)Tropical storm
1999FloydSep 1725 miTropical storm (54 mph)Category 4
1996BerthaJul 1414 miTropical storm (68 mph)Category 3
1991BobAug 1916 miCategory 1 (86 mph)Category 3
1985GloriaSep 2762 miCategory 1 (78 mph)Category 4
1976BelleAug 1074 miTropical storm (40 mph)Category 3
1966AlmaJun 1440 miTropical storm (46 mph)Category 3
1961EstherSep 2644 miTropical storm (52 mph)Category 5
1961Unnamed 1961 stormSep 1528 miTropical storm (66 mph)Tropical storm
1960DonnaSep 1222 miTropical storm (71 mph)Category 4
1960BrendaJul 3043 miTropical storm (47 mph)Tropical storm
1959CindyJul 1144 miTropical storm (56 mph)Category 1
1954EdnaSep 1159 miCategory 2 (102 mph)Category 3
1954CarolAug 3132 miCategory 2 (99 mph)Category 3
1944Unnamed 1944 stormSep 1519 miCategory 1 (74 mph)Category 5
1934Unnamed 1934 stormSep 949 miTropical storm (47 mph)Category 2
1934Unnamed 1934 stormJun 2064 miTropical storm (47 mph)Category 2
1923Unnamed 1923 stormOct 192 miTropical storm (52 mph)Tropical storm
1916Unnamed 1916 stormJul 2114 miTropical storm (59 mph)Category 2
1916Unnamed 1916 stormMay 1720 miTropical storm (58 mph)Tropical storm
1915Unnamed 1915 stormAug 554 miTropical storm (40 mph)Category 1
1908Unnamed 1908 stormMay 3112 miTropical storm (40 mph)Category 1
1907Unnamed 1907 stormJun 3038 miTropical storm (40 mph)Tropical storm
1904Unnamed 1904 stormSep 1546 miCategory 1 (86 mph)Category 1
1902Unnamed 1902 stormJun 173 miTropical storm (40 mph)Tropical storm
1897Unnamed 1897 stormSep 2413 miTropical storm (45 mph)Tropical storm
1896Unnamed 1896 stormSep 1018 miTropical storm (61 mph)Category 3
1894Unnamed 1894 stormOct 1031 miTropical storm (61 mph)Category 3
1889Unnamed 1889 stormSep 2561 miTropical storm (40 mph)Category 2
1888Unnamed 1888 stormSep 1211 miTropical storm (40 mph)Tropical storm
1888Unnamed 1888 stormAug 2217 miTropical storm (49 mph)Category 3
1880Unnamed 1880 stormOct 2372 miTropical storm (69 mph)Tropical storm
1879Unnamed 1879 stormAug 1960 miCategory 1 (78 mph)Category 3
1878Unnamed 1878 stormOct 2424 miTropical storm (58 mph)Category 2
1877Unnamed 1877 stormOct 565 miTropical storm (61 mph)Category 3
1874Unnamed 1874 stormSep 3036 miTropical storm (69 mph)Category 1
1872Unnamed 1872 stormOct 2737 miTropical storm (46 mph)Category 1
1869Unnamed 1869 stormOct 434 miCategory 2 (104 mph)Category 2
1869Unnamed 1869 stormSep 814 miCategory 2 (97 mph)Category 3
1861Unnamed 1861 stormNov 39 miTropical storm (58 mph)Category 1
1861Unnamed 1861 stormSep 2827 miTropical storm (58 mph)Category 1
1858Unnamed 1858 stormSep 1625 miCategory 1 (74 mph)Category 2
1851Unnamed 1851 stormOct 1946 miTropical storm (46 mph)Tropical storm

Strength is the sustained wind on the track at the closest point, which is not the wind felt in Lynn: 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 Lynn

By decade

  • 2020s1
  • 2010s2
  • 1990s2
  • 1980s4
  • 1970s6(1 EF3+)
  • 1960s8
  • 1950s10
Strongest tornadoes near Lynn, Massachusetts
DateRatingDistancePathKilled / injured
Sep 29, 1974F316 mi0.1 mi0 / 1
Jul 28, 2014EF24 mi1.93 mi0 / 2
Jul 21, 1972F221 mi7.6 mi0 / 4
Aug 28, 1965F225 mi2 mi0 / 0
Jul 2, 1961F224 mi5.1 mi0 / 1
Aug 25, 1958F25 mi1 mi0 / 0
Jul 11, 1958F218 mi1.5 mi0 / 0
Nov 21, 1956F224 mi0.1 mi0 / 0
Nov 21, 1956F223 mi0.8 mi0 / 0
Aug 21, 1951F218 mi9.3 mi0 / 0
Aug 9, 1972F114 mi4.9 mi1 / 6
Aug 18, 2023EF120 mi0.35 mi0 / 0

The strongest 12 of 33, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.

Hail in Lynn

The Storm Prediction Center has 68 hail reports within 10 miles of Lynn since 1966, made on 38 separate days. Of these, 31 were 1 inch across or larger, and one reached 2 inches. The largest, 3 inches (tea cup size), fell on July 11, 2006. The most recent report is from August 23, 2020. July has the most reports, 32.

Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.

Radar-estimated hail days in Lynn since 2019 →

Weather by month in Lynn

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Marblehead, MA, 5 miles northeast of Lynn at 84 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 80°F and low of 61°F; January is the coolest, at 36°F and 18°F. October is the wettest at 5.0 inches of precipitation on average and August the driest at 3.3 inches; the year adds up to 48.2 inches over 84 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 49% of the year's precipitation (23.7 of 48.2 inches); the other six months are wetter. September has brought the most of the 47 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (18); a normal September there has highs of 72°F and 3.6 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 9 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 108 nights a year. Snowfall averages 39.1 inches a year, most of it in January. That 48.2 inches is more than at 31 of the 65 Massachusetts stations used on this site (48%). Saugus, 3 miles west, has its own station (Boston Logan International Airport, MA): 43.7 inches a year, 4.5 less than here, and a July average high of 82°F against 80°F.

Sea level at the Boston tide gauge, 10 miles from Lynn, has risen 1.17 ± 0.03 inches per decade from 1921 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 11.7 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 68 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Monthly climate normals 1991–2020 at Marblehead, MA
MonthHigh °FLow °FPrecip. inDays ≥ 0.1"Snow in
Jan36183.8713.3
Feb38203.578.5
Mar44264.777.5
Apr55364.381.5
May65453.580.0
Jun74544.170.0
Jul80613.560.0
Aug79603.360.0
Sep72533.660.0
Oct61425.070.1
Nov51334.270.8
Dec42244.787.4
Year583948.28439.1

Averages for 1991–2020 at Marblehead, MA (84 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.

Massachusetts weather by month, station by station →

Floods, thunderstorm wind and lightning near Lynn

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 406 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Lynn: 237 thunderstorm wind reports, 105 floods, 38 flash floods and 26 lightning strikes. They killed 1 person and injured 6, and the NWS estimated $30.0 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 90 mph, on July 11, 2006. July has had the most flash floods, 17 of 38. Of the 339 Massachusetts cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 287 have had fewer than Lynn.

  • August 5, 2010: lightning strike 10 miles from the centre of Lynn — 1 killed.

  • July 2, 2008: thunderstorm wind 8 miles from the centre of Lynn — 1 injured, $10,000 damage.

  • July 3, 2008: thunderstorm wind 7 miles from the centre of Lynn — 1 injured, $3,000 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 Lynn's 4 ZIP codes have filed 301 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $3.8 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1996: 37 claims (12% of all) and $211,000, then Not a named storm in 1979 with 13. The year with the most claims was 2018, with 89. 23% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 229 Massachusetts cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 204 have fewer than Lynn.

Flood insurance claims in Lynn by named event
EventClaimsPaid
Flooding199637$211,000
Not a named storm197913$44,000

Essex County, which includes Lynn, has been named in 40 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1972, 25 of them major disasters (by incident: 10 severe storms, 8 snowstorms, 7 floods, 7 hurricanes). The latest major disaster declaration was Covid-19 Pandemic, on March 27, 2020. FEMA's National Risk Index gives Essex County a Relatively High rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Very High for coastal flooding; Relatively High for hurricanes, tornadoes, inland flooding, strong wind and lightning; Relatively Moderate for heat waves; Very Low for hail. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $198.8 million a year, the 2nd highest of 14 Massachusetts counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $124.6 million (63%), 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 Lynn