Ithaca

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.

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 Tompkins County, the county that contains Ithaca.

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 Tompkins County, the county that contains Ithaca.

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 Tompkins County, the county that contains Ithaca.

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 Tompkins County.

Mapped by USGS Conterminous (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. Jan 19, 1996Flash Flood$19.0 million
2. Jun 14, 2015Flash Flood$1.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Flooding caused the washout of numerous bridges in the area. Several homes were flooded to the first floor. The Shelter Valley mobile home park was evacuated.

3. May 3, 2012Hail$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   This hailstorm caused major damage to a car dealership denting over 1000 cars leading to significant financial loss of the car company.

4. Nov 8, 1996Flash Flood$900,000
5. Jul 22, 2003Flash Flood$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rains fell from late afternoon into early evening causing flash flooding of numerous roads from the City of Ithaca to the Dryden area.

6. Jan 3, 2003Heavy Snow, Tompkins$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A slow moving nor'easter moved from the southeast United States early on the 3rd to the Delmarva peninsula that evening. The storm then moved to the southeast New England coast the morning of the 4th. Snow spread well ahead of the storm into central New York the evening of the 2nd. The snow was heavy at times on the 3rd during the day into the evening. Snowfall amounts were 8 to 14 inches in the central southern tier, Finger Lakes region, and northern Oneida County and 10 to 20 inches elsewhere. The highest amounts of up to 25 inches were in Broome, Tioga, southern Cortland and southern Chenango Counties. Water equivalents were mostly half an inch in the western areas to an inch…

7. Aug 29, 2003Thunderstorm Wind$400,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Trees and wires down in the towns of Groton and Dryden. Most of the damage was withing half a mile of the village of McLean in the town of Groton. At least 15 houses sustained significant roof and porch damage from very large hardwood trees that were uprooted or had large limbs snapped off. Many trees were also downed along Cemetery Road. Many pines were snapped behind the school. Near Hart Corners (2 miles west of McLean) half of a large sturdy three story barn collapsed. The metal half dome tops of two 60 foot silos collapsed and were partially shredded and torn off on one side. A small barn at the intersection of county roads 107 and 105 was destroyed throwing debris through a…

8. Sep 7, 2011Flash Flood$400,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Major flash flooding occurred on many roads in the Caroline-Slaterville Springs area.

9. Apr 2, 2005Flash Flood$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A slow moving storm from the Ohio Valley brought 1 to 4 inches of rain on April 2nd and 3rd. Before this storm, the rivers and streams had high flows due to a previous rainstorm March 28th and snowmelt. All towns were affected in the county by flash flooding. Roads, bridges and buildings were damaged. The Taughannock Creek caused significant flooding. Other creeks and streams also came out of their banks. McLean and Groton were the hardest hit.

10. Jun 5, 2002Thunderstorm Wind$150,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Numerous trees and a few wires downed. The Groton Rural Cemetery had a large number of huge old trees fall down. The largest monument in the cemetery received damage when the obelisk topping it fell off. It broke into three pieces when it hit the ground. An estimate for the repair was more than $100,000. A tree fell onto a house. Another tree fell onto a gazebo.

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

103°FJul 9, 1936

All-time low

−25°F3 times, most recently Feb 2, 1961

Warmest night

79°FAug 7, 1918

Coldest day

−4°FFeb 18, 1979

Wettest day

5.08 inOct 28, 1981

Snowiest day

26.0 inFeb 14, 1914

Hottest year

1931mean 51.0°F

Coldest year

1904mean 43.9°F

Wettest year

201151.22 in

Driest year

196525.53 in

Snowiest season

116.6 in1993-94

Station Ithaca Cornell University (USC00304174), 960 ft elevation, 2.8 miles from the city centre. Daily records from 1893 to October 28, 2026; 98.9% 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 Tompkins 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 USC00304174.
• 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.