Canton

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 Cherokee County, the county that contains Canton.

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 Cherokee County, the county that contains Canton.

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 Cherokee County, the county that contains Canton.

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 Cherokee County.

Mapped by NASA (1).

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. May 20, 2008Tornado$46.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia concluded that an EF1 tornado touched down near the intersection of Interstate-575 and Sixes Road and traveled on the ground approximately 5-6 miles ending near the intersection of Georgia Highway 92 and Wigley Road. The maximum path width of the tornado was approximately one mile wide with maximum winds estimated to be 95 mph. The Falton Lakes Mobile Home Park sustained significant damage with substantial damage to many site-built homes also observed in the East Cherokee Drive Area.||Overall damage consisted of 60 destroyed homes, 35 of which were site-built and 25 were mobile.…

2. Sep 21, 2009Flood$44.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Cherokee county emergency management personnel and USGS stream gages confirmed that major to record flooding continued across much of the county. Hundreds of homes, apartments, businesses, and roads sustained damages from flooding. A number of culverts and/or bridges were washed out and several roads were closed, including portions of Interstate-575 near Woodstock. Flood waters began to recede after 830 am EDT on the 22nd, but many locations remained in major to record flood through 830 am EDT on the 23rd. Monetary damage from flooding continued to mount, with damages exceeding $44.5 million during this time frame, one of the highest flood damage amounts reported during this…

3. Sep 5, 2011Tornado$17.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia and the Cherokee County Emergency Manager confirmed that an EF1 tornado, spawned by strong shear associated with the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee, touched down in southern Cherokee county, just south of the Dixie Speedway, or just west of Woodstock, then tracked north-northeast across eastern Cherokee county before moving into southeastern Pickens county near the city of Nelson. The tornado, with a semi-continuous path nearly 24 miles long across Cherokee county, had a maximum path width of 1/4 mile and maximum wind gusts of 90 mph. The tornado caused extensive damage to homes…

4. Sep 21, 2009Flood$8.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   USGS stream gages on Settingdown Creek near Free Home and on Sharp Mountain Creek near Ballground both exceeded their flood stages of 13 and 18 feet, respectively. The former occurred at 441 pm EDT and the later at 825 pm EDT. Significant flooding was reported throughout the county, impacting roads, homes, apartments, and businesses. Monetary damage was estimated to be near $9 million during this time frame.

5. Mar 15, 2008Hail$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Numerous reports of large damaging hail were received from the Cherokee County Emergency Management Director and the public from southern and eastern Cherokee county. The hail began in the southwest part of the county between Canton and Cherokee, where the Emergency Manager reported quarter-sized hail. Shortly thereafter, the Emergency Manager and the public reported golf ball-sized hail in the Holly Springs area. As the thunderstorm continued on its east-northeastward track, hail up to the size of baseballs was reported by the Emergency Manager from the Buffington and Free Home areas.

6. May 20, 2008Hail$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Cherokee County Emergency Management Director observed baseball-sized hail fell just south of Holly Springs. The public reported penny-sized hail in Woodstock. Ping-pong ball-sized hail fell near the Bartow/Cherokee county line west of Cherokee. Radar supported that large hail, nickel-size or larger, fell across a large swath of the southern half of Cherokee county from near Lake Allatoona across Holly Springs, Lebanon, and Woodstock.

7. Apr 19, 2009Tornado$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia confirmed that an EF1 tornado touched down in far southeast Cherokee county near the Cobb county line in the Woodstock area. The tornado touched down near the intersection of Georgia Highway 92 and Dial Drive, then continued north-northeast along Dial Drive crossing a large section of Coleman's Bluff. The tornado lifted just south of the intersection of Windcrest Court and River Chase Drive. The total path length of the tornado was 1.5 miles with a maximum path width of 1/2 mile or 880 yards. Maximum winds were estimated to be 90 mph. EF1 tornado damage to trees and structures was…

8. Feb 21, 2005Hail$4.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Cherokee County Emergency Management Director, along with numerous reports from the public, confirmed that a wide swath of large and very damaging hail fell across much of the central portion of Cherokee county from three miles west of Canton to Hickory Flat, southeast of Canton. There were many reports of hail better than 2.0 inches in diameter, with measured hail stones of 2.75 inches from residents along Georgia Highway 140 near Lower Burris Road in Canton. So much large hail fell, that even 15 hours after the event, hail still lined some streets in the Canton area. The public works department had to be called out to clear ice from roadways. Extensive damage to roofs,…

9. Jul 7, 2008Thunderstorm Wind$3.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Cherokee County Emergency Management Director conducted a survey of extensive thunderstorm wind damage across south central Cherokee county in the Towne Lake area, just west and northwest of Woodstock. The damage area, oriented from northwest to southeast, was bounded on the northwest by Eagle Watch Drive and Running Deer Parkway on the southeast, or about one mile west Interstate 75. It was concluded that the damage was caused by thunderstorm downburst winds between 58 and 65 mph. Damage was very extensive with 800 to 100 trees either blown down or snapped in half. Many of the trees fell on residential homes causing significant damage. All together, 196 homes were damaged, 14…

10. Sep 3, 2015Hail$2.3 million
    National Weather Service narrative

    The Woodstock Police Department reported quarter to golf ball sized hail at Towne Lake Parkway and Running Deer Parkway.

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

106°FJul 2, 2012

All-time low

−6°F2 times, most recently Jan 25, 1963

Warmest night

79°FJul 2, 2025

Coldest day

15°FDec 13, 1962

Wettest day

6.27 inSep 27, 2024

Snowiest day

1.0 inJan 16, 1965

Hottest year

2016mean 63.0°F

Coldest year

1963mean 58.3°F

Wettest year

198968.73 in

Driest year

200731.07 in

Snowiest season

1.0 in1964-65

Station Allatoona Dam 2 (USC00090181), 975 ft elevation, 14.8 miles from the city centre. Daily records from 1952 to October 28, 2026; 86.9% 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 Cherokee 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 USC00090181.
• 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.