Torrington

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond this area.
2. Weak tornadoes were under-recorded before Doppler radar coverage became national in the early 1990s, so earlier decades read low. Ratings use the Fujita scale before February 2007 and the Enhanced Fujita scale after.

Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, 1950 to 2025.

Every storm within 100 miles

1. Tropical storms and hurricanes (34 kt or more, still tropical) at closest approach. Post-tropical remnants with gale-force winds are listed but not counted. Direct: track within 50 miles; near: within 100 miles. Distance is measured to the county boundary for counties and to the city centre for cities, using positions interpolated hourly between HURDAT2 fixes.

National Hurricane Center HURDAT2, 1851 to 2025.

Every large fire

1. Large fires mapped by the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity program since 1984: 1,000 acres or more in the West, 500 or more in the East. Prescribed burns are excluded. Acres here are the part of each perimeter inside this place.

Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service), 1984 to 2026.

Smoke overhead

1. A smoke day is a date on which a smoke plume traced by NOAA Hazard Mapping System analysts from satellite imagery covered this place's point (the county's population centre or the city centre). Counts here are of medium or heavy smoke. Since 2018 analysts have often drawn light smoke as one area over most of the continent, so light-smoke counts are not comparable from year to year. The plumes show smoke anywhere in the air above, not air quality at the ground, and smoke hidden by cloud is missed.

NOAA Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, 2011 to 2026, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Flood insurance figures are for Litchfield County, the county that contains Torrington.

Claims by ZIP code

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).

OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026. NOAA Storm Events through 2026.

River crests

River gauges in Litchfield County, the county that contains Torrington.

River gauges

1. Crests are the highest and the recent crests the National Weather Service lists for each river gauge in the county that has a flood stage, not every flood. Flood categories use each gauge's current flood stages; crests from before levees, dams or channel changes may not be comparable. Crests measured on an old datum are left out of the rankings.

NOAA National Water Prediction Service gauge records, retrieved October 30, 2026.

The drought index is for Litchfield County, the county that contains Torrington.

1. The Palmer Drought Severity Index is computed by NOAA each month from the county's average temperature and precipitation, relative to the county's own climate. Zero is normal; -3 or lower is severe drought and -4 or lower extreme drought. It describes the long-term balance of moisture, not water supply or crop losses.

NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, 1895 to September 2026, issued October 6, 2026.

1. Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more in the USGS Comprehensive Catalog since 1900. Within 50 miles means the epicentre lies within 50 miles of the city centre.
2. Small earthquakes were under-recorded before the modern seismic networks of the 1970s and are still missed in remote areas, so early decades read low. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them and mix scales (moment, local and body-wave).

USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, 1900 to present, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Mapped landslides

Landslides mapped in Litchfield County.

Mapped by NASA (2).

1. Landslides mapped in the USGS compilation of landslide inventories across the United States (version 3.0, 2025), rated probable or better. The compilation joins inventories made by federal and state agencies for different purposes and areas, so the number mapped in a county reflects how closely it has been surveyed as much as how often its slopes fail. An area with few records may simply not have been mapped. Deaths are as recorded in the inventories; a slide listed in two inventories is counted once.

USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0, retrieved October 27, 2026.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Sep 16, 1999Flash Flood$1.1 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The remnants of Hurricane Floyd moved up the eastern seaboard on September 16 and during the early hours on September 17. The storm brought both high winds and exceptionally heavy rainfall to northwestern Connecticut, which included a large swath of 5 to 8 inch amounts. Specific rainfall amounts included 5.20 inches at Falls Village, 6.35 inches at Colebrook Dam, 7.89 inches at Bulls Bridge and 8.28 inches at Bakersville. The rain produced widespread flooding across the region , which proved very destructive. Significant flooding was noted on many tributaries, including the Housatonic, and Shepaug Rivers in addition to many smaller streams. The rains not only flooded many roadways…

2. Apr 21, 2015Lightning$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A lightning strike during an early morning thunderstorm struck a home. The lightning initially hit a nearby tree, with the strike traveling through a trench and into an addition on the home. A fire occurred, damaging much of the home.

3. Jul 9, 2023Flash Flood$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Several portions of Route 272 were washed out due to flash flooding between Bruey Road to Route 263 in Goshen. Numerous side roads were also closed including Smith Road, Old Goshen Road, Estey Road and Meekertown Road.

4. Mar 31, 1997Winter Storm, Litchfield$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   On March 31 and April 1, a classic late season nor'easter tracked from the Chesapeake Bay area northeast to central coastal New Jersey then slowly out to sea. This system produced rain across Litchfield County during the morning hours of March 31. The rain changed to heavy wet snow by early afternoon. Snowfall amounts were highly elevation dependent, with up to two feet of snow reported in the Litchfield Hills. Some specific snowfall totals included: 21 inches at Norfolk, 19 inches at Bakersville, 15 inches at Winchester and 12 inches at Litchfield. The wet snow brought down many trees and power lines causing widespread power outages and road closures. Approximately 30,000…

5. Apr 15, 2007Flood$750,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rain led to widespread flooding across Litchfield County from Sunday evening on the 15th, and persisted through Wednesday morning on the 18th. Several streams and creeks exceeded bankful as a result of this heavy rain, including the Still River in Winsted, and the Nepaug Brook and River in New Hartford. This led to numerous road closures across the county, as well as some evacuations.|Some of the roads that were closed included Carpenter Road in new Hartford, where a foot of water was reported covering the bridge just north of Route 202, South Main Street and Highland Lake Road in Torrington, where some debris also covered portions of Highland Lake Road, Route 47 and…

6. Jul 9, 2023Flood$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Several portions of Route 272 were washed out due to flash flooding between Bruey Road to Route 263 in Goshen. Numerous side roads were also closed including Smith Road, Old Goshen Road, Estey Road and Meekertown Road.

7. Jan 19, 1996Flood, Northern Litchfield$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   An intense area of low pressure which was located over the Mid-Atlantic region on Friday morning January 19th produced unseasonably warm temperatures, high dewpoints and strong winds. This resulted in rapid melting of one to three feet of snow. In addition to the rapid snowmelt one to three inches of rain fell as the system moved northeast along the coast. This resulted in numerous reports of flooding across Litchfield County including many small streams, the Housatonic River and the East Aspetuck River. Ice jam flooding occurred at Cornwall along the Housatonic River and a mudslide damaged a house near Cornwall. At Stevenson the Housatonic River crested at 17.6 feet which was…

8. Jun 23, 2001Tornado$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A warm front, moving into Connecticut, produced a line of showers and isolated thunderstorms during the early afternoon of June 23. One cell developed into a supercell which then spawned two tornados in Litchfield County. The first tornado touched down in the northern end of the town of Washington, on a golf course near Lake Waramaug, cutting a path 50 yards wide and a mile in length. It hit during a lull of a golf tornament that was going on there, damaging the fourth hole of the course as well as destroying a metal fence around a tennis court. This tornado also demolished a storage building. This was ranked as an F1 Tornado, with winds estimated between 75 and 100 mph, by…

9. May 15, 2018Thunderstorm Wind$210,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Several large trees were snapped or uprooted. Some roads were impassable. Shingles were torn off of New Milford High School.

10. Jan 27, 1996Flood, Northern Litchfield$200,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A low pressure system over the upper Great Lakes produced a general rainfall of one to two inches across Litchfield County Connecticut. This amount of rainfall on already saturated soil brought many small streams across the county out of their banks. The Housatonic River also flooded from Gaylordsville downstream.

1. Storm Events records before 1996 cover only tornadoes, thunderstorm wind and hail. Damage figures are as reported by the National Weather Service at the time, not adjusted for inflation.

NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, 1950 to 2026, issued October 26, 2026.

All-time high

101°FJul 3, 2026

All-time low

−25°FFeb 14, 2016

Warmest night

77°F4 times, most recently Jul 15, 2026

Coldest day

−4°FDec 26, 1980

Wettest day

12.77 inAug 19, 1955

Snowiest day

26.0 inFeb 9, 2013

Hottest year

2023mean 54.5°F

Coldest year

1962mean 44.6°F

Wettest year

201179.01 in

Driest year

196531.36 in

Snowiest season

87.0 in1966-67

Station Burlington (USC00060973), 505 ft elevation, 10.6 miles from the city centre. Daily records from 1961 to October 6, 2026; 94.5% of days in the last 30 years are complete. Records at a single station can differ from a city’s official threaded record, which may combine several stations.

NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily.

Declarations for Litchfield County.

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).

OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries, retrieved October 30, 2026. Statewide declarations are not listed.

• Tornadoes NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, through 2025.
• Tropical cyclones NOAA National Hurricane Center HURDAT2 (Atlantic; Northeast and Central Pacific), through 2025.
• Wildfire USGS/USFS Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity, through 2026.
• Storm events NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, through 2026.
• Flood insurance OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026.
• Declarations OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Weather records NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily, station USC00060973.
• River crests NOAA National Weather Service, National Water Prediction Service river gauges, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Drought NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, through September 2026.
• Smoke NOAA NESDIS Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Landslides USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0 (2025).
• Earthquakes USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat), retrieved October 30, 2026.

Joins, thresholds and known limits are set out in the methodology. Found an error? Report it. Page built October 30, 2026.