Fort Walton Beach

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 Okaloosa County, the county that contains Fort Walton Beach.

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 Okaloosa County, the county that contains Fort Walton Beach.

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 Okaloosa County, the county that contains Fort Walton Beach.

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.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Sep 25, 1998Hurricane (Typhoon), Coastal Okaloosa$40.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   See the narrative on Hurricane Georges under Alabama, Southwest, September 25-29, 1998. Preliminary estimates of agricultural damage in Northwest Florida were twenty to twenty-five million in losses to cotton, soybeans, peanuts and chickens due to the storm.

2. Sep 15, 2020Tropical Storm, Okaloosa Coastal$17.3 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Hurricane Sally made landfall in Gulf Shores, AL at 5am on Wednesday, September 16th as a strong Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph. Sally produced widespread wind, storm surge, and freshwater flooding across coastal AL and the western Florida Panhandle. Flood and wind damage also extended well inland into inland southwest Alabama and south central Alabama. Sally was an extremely slow moving hurricane, which prolonged and exacerbated the local impacts. The storm was moving at less than 5 mph at the time of landfall, resulting in a long duration of tropical storm and hurricane force winds, storm surge, and torrential rainfall. ||Storm surge and resultant…

3. Jun 6, 1998Thunderstorm Wind$4.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A line of severe thunderstorms moved through the county between 1230 am and 130 am. Trees and power lines were blown down throughout the county. Most of the damage occurred in the south part of the county. Hurlburt field reported a gust of 70 mph and Eglin reported a gust of 59 mph. On Eglin Air Force Base the wind damaged three aircraft. One of the aircraft was picked up and blown across a barrier. This aircraft suffered the most damage. A spokesman estimated wind gusts of 92 mph near where the aircraft were damaged. Some minor structural damage occurred in Valparaiso and Niceville. No injuries were reported.

4. Jan 13, 2006Tornado$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A weak tornado touched down along State Highway 4 in Baker near the Post Office. The tornado tracked northeast and tore part of the roof off the Baker School. The winds from the storm funneled into part of the school and peeled sections of the roof off. Kids inside quickly got underneath their desks. Water from the rain fell into the classrooms and caused part of the ceiling to collapse. Thirteen kids suffered minor injuries. At least four classrooms at the school were damaged. The weak tornado continued tracking northeast and damaged several more homes before lifting back into the clouds near Old River Road.

5. Feb 21, 2003Thunderstorm Wind$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A line of severe thunderstorms moved across the coastal portions of the county during the early morning hours. The most intense part of the line of storms was along the coast in the vicinity of Okaloosa Island in the Fort Walton Beach area. Very strong straight line winds associated with a "bow echo" along the line storms produced extensive wind damage to the west wing of the Blue Horizon Beach Resort . The strong blast of wind tore the roof off of the three story west wing of the condos, and deposited it in the adjacent parking lot and onto Santa Rosa Blvd., the highway located just north of the condominium complex. Some of the roof debris also hit and damaged the Sugar Isle…

6. Apr 29, 2014Flash Flood$1.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Eight to foruteen inches of rain fell across Okaloosa County during the evening of April 29th and the early morning of April 30th. The rain resulted in widespread flash flooding across the county. 737 homes were damaged by flood waters. Numerous roads were impassable during the event, with several damaged or compromised by the fast moving flood waters.

7. Mar 8, 1998Flash Flood$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A slow moving complex weather system moved through southwest Alabama and northwest Florida on March 8, bringing with it copious amounts of rainfall. The Mobile WSR-88D estimated rainfall totals of six to ten inches across the area on March 8. Residents in north Santa Rosa and north Okaloosa counties estimated up to twelve inches of rain fell. The heavy rains began during the early morning hours in Escambia county and moved slowly east across Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties during the mid morning hours. The heavy rainfall caused widespread flooding across the area. The flooding began in Escambia county and then spread east across Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties. Most secondary…

8. Jul 2, 2009Thunderstorm Wind$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A thunderstorm wind gust of 70 mph destroyed two general aviation aircraft and damaged 10 others at the Destin Airport. Trees were also downed in the area.

9. Sep 24, 2002Tropical Storm, Coastal Okaloosa$879,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   For the second time during the month the area was threatened by a tropical storm. Tropical Storm Isidore threatened the area Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We were put under a Tropical Storm Warning at 900 AM CST on September 24. The Tropical Storm Warning was dropped at 300 PM CST on September 26 as the remains of Isidore moved across eastern Mississippi. Isidore moved ashore over the Southeast Louisiana Coast between 200 and 300 AM CST on September 26. Although the center of Isidore did not move over our area, the strongest winds and heaviest rains were east of the center with most of the damage across Southwest Alabama and Northwest Florida.Some of the winds recorded across…

10. Dec 31, 2002Tornado$600,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A tornado moved onshore near Florosa and caused damage as it moved northeast through a small subdivision. Two older manufactured homes were destroyed near the water as the tornado moved inland. The tornado moved across U. S. Highway 98 before dissipating. Several other homes suffered structural damage mostly to their roofs and siding. Some vehicles were also damaged by flying debris. No major injuries were reported.

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

107°FJul 15, 1980

All-time low

4°FJan 21, 1985

Warmest night

85°FSep 12, 1939

Coldest day

24°F2 times, most recently Jan 30, 2014

Wettest day

10.75 inJul 7, 1994

Snowiest day

5.0 inJan 22, 2025

Hottest year

1945mean 69.1°F

Coldest year

2010mean 63.9°F

Wettest year

1994100.68 in

Driest year

195429.56 in

Station Niceville (USC00086240), 74 ft elevation, 10.6 miles from the city centre. Daily records from 1937 to October 19, 2026; 96.9% 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 Okaloosa 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 USC00086240.
• 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.
• 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.