New Castle

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.

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 Henry County, the county that contains New Castle.

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.

The drought index is for Henry County, the county that contains New Castle.

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. May 18, 2000Hail$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A series of supercell storms dumped hail from golfball to softball size across a large portion of the northern half of the IND CWA. The storms moved across a warm front that stretched across central Indiana. Numerous cars, car lots and homes had extensive damage estimated around 75 million dollars. Frankfort, Anderson and Muncie were hardest hit. In addition, three homes in New Whiteland were burned to the ground by a lightning strike. Later in the evening, a squall line moved across the same area producing only isolated hail reports.

2. Sep 20, 2002Tornado$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A tornado formed along a squall line. Ten single family homes sustained major damage. As the tornado passed through a trailer park, 30 trailer homes sustained major damage.

3. Jun 11, 1998Tornado$800,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Third tornado from single supercell four builings nad damaged nearly 10 others.

4. Jul 22, 2004Lightning$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A bus barn was destroyed by a lightning induced fire at Blue River Valley High School.

5. Sep 1, 2003Thunderstorm Wind$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Straight-line winds caused considerable damage to several houses and vehicles. A man also received an eye injury but was in fair condition.

6. Jan 29, 2008Thunderstorm Wind$60,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Damaging thunderstorm winds damaged a semi tractor and a dog house. A shed was also destroyed near this location. A chain link fence was down and a garage had the door blown out of it due to the winds. Part of a roof of a house and also the roof of the porch was blown off nearby. The television antenna at a residence was pulled from the ground and struck the chimney of the house. Trees were reported down around the area. A two story brick building had several rows of bricks blown from the top. Another roof of a house, just east of this location, was blown off.

7. Jun 27, 2005Lightning$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning sparked a house fire near Sulphur Springs on the afternoon of 27 June 2005.

8. May 12, 2002Flash Flood$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms moved across all of central Indiana during the day of May 12 and continuing into the evening. These thunderstorms produced very heavy rain, with many areas seeing more than one round of thunderstorms. The result was extensive flash flooding. Numerous roads were closed, including state roads and U.S. highways. A couple of bridges were washed out, and some culverts were destroyed. At Ball State University in Delaware county, residence halls experienced flooding. Elsewhere in Delaware county water was up to 6 feet deep at underpasses. At Vincennes in Knox county, a trailer park was evacuated resulting in 80 families being moved to a shelter. Other smaller evacuations…

9. Jun 20, 2000Tornado$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A supercell embedded in a squall line produced two brief touchdowns from just south of MIddletown to just north of Mount Summit in Henry county. The first touchdown lasted a minute or less and occurred across farmland doing no damage, while the second destroyed one barn and damaged several roofs to outbuildings and downed numerous trees while again only touching down for a minute or less. A trained spotter followed the parent storm and observed several funnels across the county but only these two brief touchdowns. Otherwise, a squall line produced scattered reports of trees and power lines down across other central Indiana counties during the afternoon and evening of June 20.

10. Jul 24, 2023Thunderstorm Wind$50,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Thunderstorm winds flattened an 80 by 200 foot barn.

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°FJun 29, 2012

All-time low

−26°F2 times, most recently Jan 20, 1994

Warmest night

77°F3 times, most recently Jul 20, 1986

Coldest day

−12°F3 times, most recently Jan 19, 1994

Wettest day

7.74 inAug 12, 2026

Snowiest day

12.0 inDec 23, 2004

Hottest year

1952mean 53.6°F

Coldest year

2014mean 47.6°F

Wettest year

201163.46 in

Driest year

196328.31 in

Snowiest season

51.4 in2013-14

Station New Castle 3 Sw (USC00126164), 991 ft elevation, 2.2 miles from the city centre. Daily records from 1949 to October 26, 2026; 98.6% 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 Henry 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 USC00126164.
• 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.