NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Port Orchard, 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 Port Orchard, Washington since records began in 1851. Since 1950, 11 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 1 of them rated EF3 or stronger.
- Hurricanes
- 0
- Tropical storms
- 0
- Tornadoes
- 11
- 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 Port Orchard
The strongest of the 11 tornadoes within 25 miles was an F3 on December 12, 1969; its path came within 11 miles. Of the 11, one had a path within 5 miles of the city centre, and 4 have come since 2000. December has had the most tornadoes, 3. The most recent tornado was on October 18, 2019. Port Orchard has more tornadoes within 25 miles than 73% of the 226 Washington cities on this site.
Compare Port Orchard's storm record with another city →
Tornadoes within 25 miles of Port Orchard
By decade
- 2010s3
- 2000s1
- 1990s3
- 1970s1
- 1960s3(1 EF3+)
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 12, 1969 | F3 | 11 mi | 3.8 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Dec 18, 2018 | EF2 | in town | 1.35 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Oct 18, 2019 | EF1 | 21 mi | 0.68 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jan 18, 2015 | EF1 | 12 mi | 4.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| May 31, 1997 | F1 | 21 mi | 0.5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 22, 1971 | F1 | 16 mi | 0.5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Sep 28, 1962 | F1 | 15 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jun 11, 2001 | F0 | 8 mi | — | 0 / 0 |
| Jun 23, 1996 | F0 | 15 mi | 0.4 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Apr 9, 1991 | F0 | 8 mi | 0.8 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Aug 18, 1964 | F0 | 25 mi | 5.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
The strongest 11 of 11, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.
Hail in Port Orchard
The Storm Prediction Center has no hail reports within 10 miles of Port Orchard since 1955.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Port Orchard
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Bremerton, WA, 5 miles northwest of Port Orchard at 110 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 77°F and low of 55°F; December is the coolest, at 46°F and 35°F. December is the wettest at 9.9 inches of precipitation on average and July the driest at 0.8 inches; the year adds up to 56.9 inches over 102 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 42 nights a year. Snowfall averages 3.0 inches a year, most of it in December. That 56.9 inches is more than at 66 of the 86 Washington stations used on this site (77%). Vashon, 10 miles southeast, has its own station (Seattle Tacoma International Airport, WA): 39.5 inches a year, 17.4 less than here, and an August average high of 78°F against 77°F.
Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Tacoma, WA, 19 miles southeast, 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, 15 miles from Port Orchard, 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" | Snow in | Water °F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 47 | 36 | 9.3 | 14 | 0.6 | 49 |
| Feb | 49 | 35 | 5.8 | 10 | 0.7 | 48 |
| Mar | 54 | 38 | 6.4 | 12 | 0.1 | 48 |
| Apr | 59 | 41 | 3.9 | 9 | 0.0 | 49 |
| May | 66 | 47 | 2.4 | 6 | 0.0 | 51 |
| Jun | 70 | 51 | 1.6 | 5 | 0.0 | 53 |
| Jul | 77 | 55 | 0.8 | 2 | 0.0 | 55 |
| Aug | 77 | 55 | 1.1 | 2 | 0.0 | 56 |
| Sep | 72 | 51 | 1.8 | 5 | 0.0 | 56 |
| Oct | 61 | 45 | 5.1 | 9 | 0.0 | 55 |
| Nov | 51 | 39 | 8.8 | 13 | 0.3 | 53 |
| Dec | 46 | 35 | 9.9 | 14 | 1.3 | 51 |
| Year | 61 | 44 | 56.9 | 102 | 3.0 | 52 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Bremerton, WA (110 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.
Flood insurance claims, disaster declarations and FEMA risk ratings
Flood insurance policyholders in Port Orchard's 2 ZIP codes have filed 28 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1986, and were paid $444,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. 25% 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, 37 have fewer than Port Orchard.
Kitsap County, which includes Port Orchard, has been named in 16 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1965, 14 of them major disasters (by incident: 6 floods, 4 severe storms, 2 biological emergencies, 2 earthquakes). The latest major disaster declaration was Covid-19 Pandemic, on March 22, 2020. FEMA's National Risk Index gives Kitsap County a Relatively Moderate rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Relatively Moderate for inland flooding, coastal flooding and heat waves; Relatively Low for lightning; Very Low for tornadoes, hail and strong wind. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $158.3 million a year, the 6th highest of 39 Washington counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $24.7 million (16%), 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.