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NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database

Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Malden, 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

46 tropical systems have passed within 75 miles of Malden, Massachusetts since 1851, 10 of them at hurricane strength; the most recent was Elsa in 2021. Since 1950, 42 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 1 of them rated EF3 or stronger.

Hurricanes
10

within 75 mi, since 1851

Tropical storms
36

below hurricane strength

Tornadoes
42

within 25 mi, since 1950

EF3 or stronger
1

1 deaths in all

What the records show for Malden

The strongest storm to pass near Malden was an unnamed storm in 1869, a Category 2 hurricane with 104 mph winds when its centre passed 39 miles away. The closest pass by a hurricane was an unnamed storm in 1869, whose centre came within 10 miles. The record near Malden begins with an unnamed storm in 1851; the most recent system was Elsa in 2021, a tropical storm 23 miles away. The 1870s and the 1960s were the busiest decades, with 5 systems each. Of the 46 systems, 5 have come since 2000. Of the 346 Massachusetts cities on this site, 51% have more hurricanes within 75 miles than Malden. The strongest of the 42 tornadoes within 25 miles was an F3 on September 29, 1974; its path came within 15 miles. The deadliest, an F1 on August 9, 1972, killed 1 person. Of the 42, 2 had paths within 5 miles of the city centre, and 8 have come since 2000. July has had the most tornadoes, 14. The most recent tornado was on September 6, 2025. Of the 346 Massachusetts cities, 58% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than Malden. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 86 times since 1957, with stones up to 2 inches (hen egg size). Malden has more hail reports within 10 miles than 89% of the 346 Massachusetts cities.

Compare Malden's storm record with another city →

Tropical storms and hurricanes near Malden

Tropical systems that passed within 75 miles of Malden, Massachusetts, newest first
YearStormClosestStrength when closestPeak
2021ElsaJul 923 miTropical storm (52 mph)Category 1
2013AndreaJun 826 miTropical storm (46 mph)Tropical storm
2008HannaSep 711 miTropical storm (52 mph)Category 1
2007BarryJun 413 miTropical storm (40 mph)Tropical storm
2004HermineAug 3165 miTropical storm (40 mph)Tropical storm
1999FloydSep 1724 miTropical storm (55 mph)Category 4
1996BerthaJul 1413 miTropical storm (68 mph)Category 3
1991BobAug 1919 miCategory 1 (87 mph)Category 3
1985GloriaSep 2759 miCategory 1 (78 mph)Category 4
1976BelleAug 1069 miTropical storm (40 mph)Category 3
1966AlmaJun 1441 miTropical storm (46 mph)Category 3
1961EstherSep 2649 miTropical storm (52 mph)Category 5
1961Unnamed 1961 stormSep 1525 miTropical storm (66 mph)Tropical storm
1960DonnaSep 1219 miTropical storm (72 mph)Category 4
1960BrendaJul 3041 miTropical storm (47 mph)Tropical storm
1959CindyJul 1147 miTropical storm (56 mph)Category 1
1954EdnaSep 1161 miCategory 2 (104 mph)Category 3
1954CarolAug 3128 miCategory 2 (99 mph)Category 3
1944Unnamed 1944 stormSep 1521 miCategory 1 (74 mph)Category 5
1934Unnamed 1934 stormSep 946 miTropical storm (47 mph)Category 2
1934Unnamed 1934 stormJun 2064 miTropical storm (47 mph)Category 2
1923Unnamed 1923 stormOct 194 miTropical storm (52 mph)Tropical storm
1916Unnamed 1916 stormJul 2118 miTropical storm (59 mph)Category 2
1916Unnamed 1916 stormMay 1716 miTropical storm (58 mph)Tropical storm
1915Unnamed 1915 stormAug 548 miTropical storm (40 mph)Category 1
1908Unnamed 1908 stormMay 319 miTropical storm (40 mph)Category 1
1907Unnamed 1907 stormJun 3041 miTropical storm (40 mph)Tropical storm
1904Unnamed 1904 stormSep 1548 miCategory 1 (86 mph)Category 1
1902Unnamed 1902 stormJun 175 miTropical storm (40 mph)Tropical storm
1897Unnamed 1897 stormSep 2410 miTropical storm (45 mph)Tropical storm
1896Unnamed 1896 stormSep 1023 miTropical storm (61 mph)Category 3
1894Unnamed 1894 stormOct 1027 miTropical storm (61 mph)Category 3
1889Unnamed 1889 stormSep 2564 miTropical storm (40 mph)Category 2
1888Unnamed 1888 stormSep 1212 miTropical storm (40 mph)Tropical storm
1888Unnamed 1888 stormAug 2217 miTropical storm (48 mph)Category 3
1879Unnamed 1879 stormAug 1961 miCategory 1 (78 mph)Category 3
1878Unnamed 1878 stormOct 2428 miTropical storm (58 mph)Category 2
1877Unnamed 1877 stormOct 565 miTropical storm (61 mph)Category 3
1874Unnamed 1874 stormSep 3033 miTropical storm (69 mph)Category 1
1872Unnamed 1872 stormOct 2736 miTropical storm (46 mph)Category 1
1869Unnamed 1869 stormOct 439 miCategory 2 (104 mph)Category 2
1869Unnamed 1869 stormSep 810 miCategory 2 (98 mph)Category 3
1861Unnamed 1861 stormNov 35 miTropical storm (58 mph)Category 1
1861Unnamed 1861 stormSep 2826 miTropical storm (58 mph)Category 1
1858Unnamed 1858 stormSep 1621 miCategory 1 (74 mph)Category 2
1851Unnamed 1851 stormOct 1940 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 Malden: 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 Malden

By decade

  • 2020s5
  • 2010s3
  • 1990s2
  • 1980s8
  • 1970s7(1 EF3+)
  • 1960s8
  • 1950s9
Strongest tornadoes near Malden, Massachusetts
DateRatingDistancePathKilled / injured
Sep 29, 1974F315 mi0.1 mi0 / 1
Jul 28, 2014EF23 mi1.93 mi0 / 2
Jul 21, 1972F217 mi7.6 mi0 / 4
Aug 28, 1965F223 mi2 mi0 / 0
Jul 2, 1961F225 mi5.1 mi0 / 1
Aug 25, 1958F28 mi1 mi0 / 0
Jul 11, 1958F213 mi1.5 mi0 / 0
Nov 21, 1956F219 mi0.1 mi0 / 0
Aug 21, 1951F219 mi9.3 mi0 / 0
Aug 9, 1972F18 mi4.9 mi1 / 6
Aug 18, 2023EF118 mi0.35 mi0 / 0
Aug 22, 2016EF114 mi0.85 mi0 / 0

The strongest 12 of 42, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.

Hail in Malden

The Storm Prediction Center has 86 hail reports within 10 miles of Malden since 1957, made on 40 separate days. Of these, 42 were 1 inch across or larger, and 2 reached 2 inches. The largest, 2 inches (hen egg size), fell on August 4, 2015. The most recent report is from August 23, 2020. July has the most reports, 38.

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

Radar-estimated hail days in Malden since 2019 →

Weather by month in Malden

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Boston Logan International Airport, MA, 5 miles southeast of Malden at 12 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 82°F and low of 66°F; January is the coolest, at 37°F and 23°F. December is the wettest at 4.3 inches of precipitation on average and February and August the driest at 3.2 inches; the year adds up to 43.7 inches over 77 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 50% of the year's precipitation (21.7 of 43.7 inches). September has brought the most of the 46 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (18); a normal September there has highs of 73°F and 3.6 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 14 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 92 nights a year. Snowfall averages 49.2 inches a year, most of it in February. That 43.7 inches is more than at 8 of the 65 Massachusetts stations used on this site (12%). Melrose, 2 miles north, has its own station (Reading, MA): 49.9 inches a year, 6.2 more than here, and a July average high of 84°F against 82°F.

Sea level at the Boston tide gauge, 5 miles from Malden, 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 Boston Logan International Airport, MA
MonthHigh °FLow °FPrecip. inDays ≥ 0.1"Snow in
Jan37233.4714.3
Feb39253.2614.4
Mar46314.279.0
Apr56413.671.6
May67503.370.0
Jun76603.970.0
Jul82663.360.0
Aug80653.250.0
Sep73583.660.0
Oct62484.060.2
Nov52383.760.7
Dec42294.379.0
Year594443.77749.2

Averages for 1991–2020 at Boston Logan International Airport, MA (12 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 Malden

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 557 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Malden: 330 thunderstorm wind reports, 139 floods, 58 flash floods and 30 lightning strikes. They killed 1 person and injured 23, and the NWS estimated $42.1 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 81 mph, on July 18, 2012. July has had the most flash floods, 33 of 58. Of the 339 Massachusetts cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 322 have had fewer than Malden.

  • August 5, 2010: lightning strike 7 miles from the centre of Malden — 1 killed.

  • July 20, 2008: lightning strike 10 miles from the centre of Malden — 10 injured.

  • June 27, 2008: lightning strike 6 miles from the centre of Malden — 4 injured, $5.0 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 Malden's ZIP code 02148 have filed 87 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $321,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1996: 30 claims (34% of all) and $44,000, then March 2010 Nor'easter in 2010 with 11. The year with the most claims was 2006, with 17. 59% 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, 160 have fewer than Malden.

Flood insurance claims in Malden by named event
EventClaimsPaid
Flooding199630$44,000
March 2010 Nor'easter201011$38,000

Middlesex County, which includes Malden, has been named in 35 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1985, 19 of them major disasters (by incident: 9 severe storms, 8 snowstorms, 7 hurricanes, 5 floods). The latest major disaster declaration was Covid-19 Pandemic, on March 27, 2020. FEMA's National Risk Index gives Middlesex County a Relatively High rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Relatively High for hurricanes, inland flooding, strong wind and lightning; Relatively Moderate for tornadoes and heat waves; Relatively Low for coastal flooding; Very Low for hail. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $321.9 million a year, the highest of 14 Massachusetts counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $224.4 million (70%), 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 Malden