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NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database

Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Mc Lean, VA

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

30 tropical systems have passed within 75 miles of Mc Lean, Virginia since 1851, 3 of them at hurricane strength; the most recent was Zeta in 2020. Since 1950, 110 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 3 of them rated EF3 or stronger.

Hurricanes
3

within 75 mi, since 1851

Tropical storms
27

below hurricane strength

Tornadoes
110

within 25 mi, since 1950

EF3 or stronger
3

3 deaths in all

What the records show for Mc Lean

The strongest storm to pass near Mc Lean was an unnamed storm in 1878, a Category 1 hurricane with 92 mph winds when its centre crossed the city. The record near Mc Lean begins with an unnamed storm in 1876; the most recent system was Zeta in 2020, a tropical storm 57 miles away. The busiest decade was the 1890s, with 5 systems, one of them at hurricane strength. Of the 30 systems, 5 have come since 2000. Mc Lean has more hurricanes within 75 miles than 33% of the 364 Virginia cities on this site. The highest rating among the 110 tornadoes within 25 miles is F3, reached 3 times; the most recent, on September 24, 2001, came within 12 miles. Of the 110, 6 had paths within 5 miles of the city centre, and 67 have come since 2000. June has had the most tornadoes, 21. The most recent tornado was on June 5, 2024. Mc Lean is tied for the most tornadoes within 25 miles among the 364 Virginia cities. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 177 times since 1968, with stones up to 3 inches (tea cup size). Mc Lean has more hail reports within 10 miles than 97% of the 364 Virginia cities.

Compare Mc Lean's storm record with another city →

Tropical storms and hurricanes near Mc Lean

Tropical systems that passed within 75 miles of Mc Lean, Virginia, newest first
YearStormClosestStrength when closestPeak
2020ZetaOct 2957 miTropical storm (52 mph)Category 3
2020IsaiasAug 452 miTropical storm (68 mph)Category 1
2012SandyOct 3074 miTropical storm (61 mph)Category 3
2008HannaSep 669 miTropical storm (52 mph)Category 1
2006ErnestoSep 227 miTropical storm (46 mph)Category 1
1996BerthaJul 1373 miTropical storm (69 mph)Category 3
1979DavidSep 667 miTropical storm (46 mph)Category 5
1963Unnamed 1963 stormJun 374 miTropical storm (46 mph)Tropical storm
1955DianeAug 1825 miTropical storm (43 mph)Category 2
1955ConnieAug 1334 miTropical storm (58 mph)Category 4
1954HazelOct 1518 miCategory 1 (84 mph)Category 4
1952AbleSep 121 miTropical storm (56 mph)Category 2
1949Unnamed 1949 stormAug 2936 miTropical storm (58 mph)Category 4
1945Unnamed 1945 stormSep 1835 miTropical storm (39 mph)Category 4
1944Unnamed 1944 stormAug 256 miTropical storm (40 mph)Category 1
1943Unnamed 1943 stormOct 127 miTropical storm (46 mph)Tropical storm
1934Unnamed 1934 stormJun 1917 miTropical storm (46 mph)Category 2
1933Unnamed 1933 stormAug 241 miTropical storm (62 mph)Category 4
1929Unnamed 1929 stormOct 224 miTropical storm (58 mph)Category 4
1928Unnamed 1928 stormSep 2030 miTropical storm (52 mph)Category 5
1915Unnamed 1915 stormAug 47 miTropical storm (47 mph)Category 1
1899Unnamed 1899 stormNov 131 miTropical storm (58 mph)Category 2
1896Unnamed 1896 stormSep 3075 miTropical storm (70 mph)Category 3
1893Unnamed 1893 stormOct 2322 miTropical storm (44 mph)Tropical storm
1893Unnamed 1893 stormOct 1447 miCategory 1 (75 mph)Category 3
1893Unnamed 1893 stormAug 2914 miTropical storm (63 mph)Category 3
1888Unnamed 1888 stormSep 1172 miTropical storm (40 mph)Tropical storm
1885Unnamed 1885 stormOct 1343 miTropical storm (46 mph)Tropical storm
1878Unnamed 1878 stormOct 23overheadCategory 1 (92 mph)Category 2
1876Unnamed 1876 stormSep 1817 miTropical storm (66 mph)Category 3

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

By decade

  • 2020s12
  • 2010s31
  • 2000s24(1 EF3+)
  • 1990s24
  • 1980s6
  • 1970s7(2 EF3+)
  • 1960s2
  • 1950s4
Strongest tornadoes near Mc Lean, Virginia
DateRatingDistancePathKilled / injured
Sep 24, 2001F312 mi17.5 mi2 / 55
Sep 5, 1979F3in town17.9 mi1 / 6
Apr 1, 1973F35 mi9.8 mi0 / 37
Sep 17, 2004F212 mi15 mi0 / 1
Sep 17, 2004F225 mi4 mi0 / 0
Jun 24, 1996F27 mi20 mi0 / 1
Oct 5, 1995F215 mi2.5 mi0 / 3
Oct 13, 1983F24 mi1 mi0 / 0
Jul 28, 1981F213 mi0.1 mi0 / 0
Jun 3, 1980F223 mi2.7 mi0 / 0
Sep 5, 1979F221 mi0.5 mi0 / 0
Sep 5, 1979F221 mi0.5 mi0 / 2

The strongest 12 of 110, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.

Hail in Mc Lean

The Storm Prediction Center has 177 hail reports within 10 miles of Mc Lean since 1968, made on 86 separate days. Of these, 111 were 1 inch across or larger, and 6 reached 2 inches. The largest, 3 inches (tea cup size), fell on August 11, 2004. The most recent report is from May 16, 2025. June has the most reports, 52.

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

Radar-estimated hail days in Mc Lean since 2019 →

Weather by month in Mc Lean

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Dalecarlia Rsvr, MD, 4 miles east of Mc Lean at 150 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 88°F and low of 68°F; January is the coolest, at 43°F and 26°F. July is the wettest at 5.1 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.2 inches; the year adds up to 48.3 inches over 81 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 54% of the year's precipitation (25.9 of 48.3 inches); the other six months are drier. Highs reach 90°F on about 44 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 95 nights a year. Snowfall averages 5.8 inches a year, most of it in January. That 48.3 inches is more than at 88 of the 109 Virginia stations used on this site (81%). Vienna, 4 miles southwest, has its own station (Vienna, VA): 43.5 inches a year, 4.8 less than here, and a July average high of 84°F against 88°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Washington, DC, 10 miles southeast, averaged 84°F in July and 39°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from July to August. Sea level at the Washington tide gauge, 10 miles from Mc Lean, has risen 1.40 ± 0.05 inches per decade from 1924 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 14.0 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 84 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Monthly climate normals 1991–2020 at Dalecarlia Rsvr, MD
MonthHigh °FLow °FPrecip. inDays ≥ 0.1"Snow inWater °F
Jan43263.362.939
Feb46273.261.441
Mar55344.280.750
Apr68443.570.060
May76544.480.069
Jun84634.270.077
Jul88685.170.084
Aug86664.470.082
Sep79594.570.076
Oct68474.460.066
Nov56363.360.054
Dec47303.870.842
Year664648.3815.862

Averages for 1991–2020 at Dalecarlia Rsvr, MD (150 ft), from NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals; water temperature: average of hourly readings 2021–2025 at the NOAA tide station Washington, DC, 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.

Virginia weather by month, station by station →

Floods, thunderstorm wind and lightning near Mc Lean

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 1,685 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Mc Lean: 991 thunderstorm wind reports, 362 floods, 323 flash floods, 8 lightning strikes and 1 heavy rain event. They killed 12 people and injured 46, and the NWS estimated $66.0 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 90 mph, on August 5, 2010. July has had the most flash floods, 150 of 323. Of the 364 Virginia cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 362 have had fewer than Mc Lean.

  • August 4, 2022: lightning strike 9 miles from the centre of Mc Lean — 3 killed.

  • June 26, 2009: thunderstorm wind 6 miles from the centre of Mc Lean — 2 killed, 6 injured.

  • June 27, 2015: flash flood 8 miles from the centre of Mc Lean — 2 killed, $10,000 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 Mc Lean's 2 ZIP codes have filed 104 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $1.5 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The year with the most claims was 2019, with 35. 13% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 183 Virginia cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 135 have fewer than Mc Lean.

Fairfax County, which includes Mc Lean, has been named in 19 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1972, 13 of them major disasters (by incident: 5 hurricanes, 5 snowstorms, 4 severe storms, 2 biological emergencies). The latest major disaster declaration was Covid-19 Pandemic, on April 2, 2020. FEMA's National Risk Index gives Fairfax County a Relatively High rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Very High for lightning; Relatively High for hail, inland flooding, strong wind and heat waves; Relatively Moderate for hurricanes; Relatively Low for tornadoes and coastal flooding. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $219.1 million a year, the highest of 133 Virginia counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $154.7 million (71%), 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 Mc Lean