NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Mount Bethel, PA
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
28 tropical systems have passed within 75 miles of Mount Bethel, Pennsylvania since 1851, 2 of them at hurricane strength; the most recent was Ida in 2021. Since 1950, 46 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 3 of them rated EF3 or stronger.
- Hurricanes
- 2
- Tropical storms
- 26
- Tornadoes
- 46
- EF3 or stronger
- 3
within 75 mi, since 1851
below hurricane strength
within 25 mi, since 1950
no recorded deaths
What the records show for Mount Bethel
The strongest storm to pass near Mount Bethel was an unnamed storm in 1893, a Category 1 hurricane with 86 mph winds when its centre passed 65 miles away. The closest pass by a hurricane was an unnamed storm in 1878, whose centre came within 33 miles. The record near Mount Bethel begins with an unnamed storm in 1861; the most recent system was Ida in 2021, a tropical storm 61 miles away. Of the 28 systems, 5 have come since 2000. Mount Bethel has more hurricanes within 75 miles than 54% of the 794 Pennsylvania cities on this site. The highest rating among the 46 tornadoes within 25 miles is F3, reached 3 times; the most recent, on July 26, 1981, came within 22 miles. Of the 46, 2 had paths within 5 miles of the city centre, and 10 have come since 2000. July has had the most tornadoes, 12. The most recent tornado was on May 6, 2025. Of the 794 Pennsylvania cities, 68% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than Mount Bethel. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 26 times since 1956, with stones up to 3 inches (tea cup size). Of the 794 Pennsylvania cities, 76% have more hail reports within 10 miles than Mount Bethel.
Compare Mount Bethel's storm record with another city →
Tropical storms and hurricanes near Mount Bethel
| Year | Storm | Closest | Strength when closest | Peak |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | IdaSep 2 | 61 mi | Tropical storm (43 mph) | Category 4 |
| 2020 | IsaiasAug 4 | overhead | Tropical storm (63 mph) | Category 1 |
| 2020 | FayJul 11 | 64 mi | Tropical storm (40 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 2011 | IreneAug 28 | 61 mi | Tropical storm (63 mph) | Category 3 |
| 2008 | HannaSep 7 | 67 mi | Tropical storm (52 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1996 | BerthaJul 13 | 56 mi | Tropical storm (69 mph) | Category 3 |
| 1979 | DavidSep 6 | 73 mi | Tropical storm (46 mph) | Category 5 |
| 1972 | AgnesJun 22 | 72 mi | Tropical storm (55 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1971 | DoriaAug 28 | 58 mi | Tropical storm (61 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1960 | BrendaJul 30 | 72 mi | Tropical storm (58 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1955 | DianeAug 19 | 36 mi | Tropical storm (44 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1952 | AbleSep 1 | 9 mi | Tropical storm (58 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1949 | Unnamed 1949 stormAug 29 | 50 mi | Tropical storm (56 mph) | Category 4 |
| 1934 | Unnamed 1934 stormJun 19 | 59 mi | Tropical storm (46 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1929 | Unnamed 1929 stormOct 3 | 34 mi | Tropical storm (58 mph) | Category 4 |
| 1924 | Unnamed 1924 stormSep 30 | 59 mi | Tropical storm (68 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1915 | Unnamed 1915 stormAug 4 | 24 mi | Tropical storm (55 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1903 | Unnamed 1903 stormSep 16 | 12 mi | Tropical storm (63 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1899 | Unnamed 1899 stormNov 1 | 1 mi | Tropical storm (55 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1893 | Unnamed 1893 stormAug 29 | overhead | Tropical storm (63 mph) | Category 3 |
| 1893 | Unnamed 1893 stormAug 24 | 65 mi | Category 1 (86 mph) | Category 3 |
| 1888 | Unnamed 1888 stormAug 22 | 6 mi | Tropical storm (46 mph) | Category 3 |
| 1878 | Unnamed 1878 stormOct 23 | 33 mi | Category 1 (83 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1874 | Unnamed 1874 stormSep 29 | 64 mi | Tropical storm (66 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1872 | Unnamed 1872 stormOct 26 | 65 mi | Tropical storm (46 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1866 | Unnamed 1866 stormOct 30 | 55 mi | Tropical storm (60 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1863 | Unnamed 1863 stormSep 19 | 45 mi | Tropical storm (51 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1861 | Unnamed 1861 stormSep 28 | 70 mi | Tropical storm (64 mph) | Category 1 |
Strength is the sustained wind on the track at the closest point, which is not the wind felt in Mount Bethel: 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 Mount Bethel
By decade
- 2020s4
- 2010s3
- 2000s3
- 1990s10
- 1980s10(1 EF3+)
- 1970s12(2 EF3+)
- 1960s1
- 1950s3
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 26, 1981 | F3 | 22 mi | 3.3 mi | 0 / 2 |
| Mar 21, 1976 | F3 | 7 mi | 0.5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| May 28, 1973 | F3 | 21 mi | 0.4 mi | 0 / 12 |
| Jul 29, 2009 | EF2 | 7 mi | 4.58 mi | 0 / 2 |
| Nov 8, 1996 | F2 | 23 mi | 2 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Oct 26, 1981 | F2 | 12 mi | 0.8 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jul 20, 1981 | F2 | 19 mi | 3.6 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jul 20, 1981 | F2 | 1 mi | 4.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Apr 29, 1981 | F2 | 25 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Oct 5, 1979 | F2 | 11 mi | 0.3 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Apr 14, 1974 | F2 | 15 mi | 0.5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Feb 2, 1973 | F2 | 24 mi | 0.3 mi | 0 / 0 |
The strongest 12 of 46, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.
Hail in Mount Bethel
The Storm Prediction Center has 26 hail reports within 10 miles of Mount Bethel since 1956, made on 19 separate days. Of these, 14 were 1 inch across or larger, and one reached 2 inches. The largest, 3 inches (tea cup size), fell on June 22, 1996. The most recent report is from September 7, 2023. June has the most reports, 9.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Mount Bethel
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Belvidere Brg, NJ, 4 miles south of Mount Bethel at 263 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 84°F and low of 61°F; January is the coolest, at 37°F and 18°F. July and October are the wettest at 4.8 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.7 inches; the year adds up to 48.3 inches over 82 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 55% of the year's precipitation (26.6 of 48.3 inches); the other six months are drier. Highs reach 90°F on about 14 days a year, almost all from June to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 135 nights a year. Snowfall averages 23.3 inches a year, most of it in January. That 48.3 inches is more than at 116 of the 148 Pennsylvania stations used on this site (78%). Stroudsburg, 10 miles northwest, has its own station (E Stroudsburg, PA): 53.4 inches a year, 5.1 more than here, and the same July average high, 84°F.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip. in | Days ≥ 0.1" | Snow in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 37 | 18 | 3.2 | 6 | 9.9 |
| Feb | 40 | 19 | 2.7 | 6 | 5.2 |
| Mar | 48 | 26 | 3.6 | 7 | 3.5 |
| Apr | 61 | 36 | 4.0 | 7 | 0.3 |
| May | 71 | 46 | 4.1 | 8 | 0.0 |
| Jun | 79 | 56 | 4.5 | 8 | 0.0 |
| Jul | 84 | 61 | 4.8 | 8 | 0.0 |
| Aug | 83 | 59 | 4.6 | 7 | 0.0 |
| Sep | 76 | 52 | 4.6 | 6 | 0.0 |
| Oct | 64 | 40 | 4.8 | 6 | 0.0 |
| Nov | 52 | 30 | 3.3 | 5 | 0.4 |
| Dec | 41 | 24 | 4.1 | 7 | 4.0 |
| Year | 61 | 39 | 48.3 | 82 | 23.3 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Belvidere Brg, NJ (263 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.
Floods, thunderstorm wind and lightning near Mount Bethel
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 292 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Mount Bethel: 238 thunderstorm wind reports, 31 flash floods, 11 lightning strikes, 7 heavy rain events and 5 floods. They killed 0 people and injured 8, and the NWS estimated $3.7 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 85 mph, on May 13, 2000. July has had the most flash floods, 13 of 31. Of the 788 Pennsylvania cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 432 have had fewer than Mount Bethel.
May 24, 2009: lightning strike 7 miles from the centre of Mount Bethel — 4 injured.
November 8, 1996: thunderstorm wind 10 miles from the centre of Mount Bethel — 2 injured.
May 13, 2000: thunderstorm wind 6 miles from the centre of Mount Bethel — 1 injured, $500,000 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 Mount Bethel's ZIP code 18343 have filed 134 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1990, and were paid $3.9 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Tropical Storm Ivan in 2004: 30 claims (22% of all) and $740,000, then Flooding in 1996 with 13. The year with the most claims was 2006, with 39. 39% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 553 Pennsylvania cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 418 have fewer than Mount Bethel.
| Event | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Tropical Storm Ivan2004 | 30 | $740,000 |
| Flooding1996 | 13 | $89,000 |
Northampton County, which includes Mount Bethel, has been named in 24 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1965, 17 of them major disasters (by incident: 7 hurricanes, 6 severe storms, 5 floods, 3 snowstorms). The latest major disaster declaration was Remnants of Hurricane Ida, on September 10, 2021. FEMA's National Risk Index gives Northampton County a Relatively Moderate rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Relatively High for inland flooding and lightning; Relatively Moderate for hurricanes, tornadoes, strong wind and heat waves; Very Low for hail. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $90.4 million a year, the 12th highest of 67 Pennsylvania counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $63.0 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 Mount Bethel
- Columbia, NJ4 mi
- Bangor, PA5 mi
- Belvidere, NJ6 mi
- Pen Argyl, PA8 mi
- Oxford, NJ9 mi
- Blairstown, NJ9 mi
- Stroudsburg, PA10 mi
- Wind Gap, PA11 mi
- East Stroudsburg, PA11 mi
- Great Meadows, NJ11 mi
- Washington, NJ11 mi
- Port Murray, NJ13 mi
All Pennsylvania cities →All hurricanes since 1851 →Compare Mount Bethel with another place →