Sussex County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Sussex County: 1.
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.

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

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.

High tide flooding

1. High tide flooding days are days on which a NOAA tide gauge recorded water at or above NOAA's minor flood threshold, set from the gauge's tide range, counted by meteorological year (May to April). These are the counts in NOAA's annual high tide flooding reports; they are not National Weather Service flood stages. Years with less than 80 percent of data are left out.

NOAA CO-OPS high tide flooding counts, through April 2026, retrieved October 30, 2026.

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.

Every earthquake of magnitude 4 or more within 50 miles

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 county boundary (or inside the county).
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.

Tsunamis

1. Places where NOAA's Global Historical Tsunami Database records a tsunami's water arriving, with the greatest height it reached above sea level at the time. Only tsunamis NOAA rates probable or definite are counted. Heights from eyewitness accounts and tide gauges are mixed, and older events are less completely recorded.

NOAA NCEI/WDS Global Historical Tsunami Database, retrieved October 30, 2026.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Nov 12, 2009Coastal Flood, Delaware Beaches$40.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A powerful nor'easter produced wind gusts nearly as high as 60 mph, widespread moderate tidal flooding, heavy rain and severe beach erosion along the Delaware coast from November 12th through the 14th. Preliminary damage was estimated at 45 million dollars. The highest winds occurred from the morning of the 12th into the afternoon of the 13th. About 13,000 people in Delaware and Maryland lost power. The heaviest rain fell on the 11th and 12th. The combination of heavy rain and tides caused about 50 roads in Delaware to be closed, the most notable Delaware State Route 1. Parts of the roadway remain closed through the 15th as three feet of sand accumulated on it. Service on the Cape…

2. Sep 18, 2003Tropical Storm, Inland Sussex$8.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Tropical Storm Isabel caused tidal flooding up Delaware Bay, heavy rain and strong power outage producing winds. Isabel made landfall as a hurricane near Drum Inlet, North Carolina around 100 p.m. EDT on the 18th and weakened as it tracked farther inland. At one time in its life cycle, it was a powerful Category 5 hurricane when it was north of the Leewood Islands. Isabel's track took it west of Chesapeake Bay and was able to funnel water into the bay. This caused flooding along coastal areas all the way into New Castle County. Rivers and streams in New Castle County flooded from two fronts: from the heavy rain inland and also from the storm surge. The tide at Reedy Point reached…

3. Nov 12, 2009Coastal Flood, Inland Sussex$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A powerful nor'easter produced wind gusts nearly as high as 60 mph, widespread moderate tidal flooding, heavy rain and severe beach erosion along the Delaware coast from November 12th through the 14th. Preliminary damage was estimated at 45 million dollars. The highest winds occurred from the morning of the 12th into the afternoon of the 13th. About 13,000 people in Delaware and Maryland lost power. The heaviest rain fell on the 11th and 12th. The combination of heavy rain and tides caused about 50 roads in Delaware to be closed, the most notable Delaware State Route 1. Parts of the roadway remain closed through the 15th as three feet of sand accumulated on it. Service on the Cape…

4. Jan 7, 1996Coastal Flood, Delaware Beaches$1.8 million
5. Feb 9, 2010Winter Storm, Inland Sussex$1.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   For the second time within a week a major winter storm, this one with blizzard conditions at times, affected the state of Delaware. Blizzard conditions occurred at times during the afternoon and early evening of the 10th. Accumulations averaged around one foot with the highest amounts in New Castle County. Ice accretions were less than one quarter of an inch. Two storm related deaths occurred. ||In the southern half of the state, precipitation started briefly as rain or sleet around 6 p.m. EST on the 9th. As the precipitation intensity increased, the rain and sleet changed to snow by the middle of the evening. As warmer air moved in aloft, the snow changed back to sleet and…

6. Feb 9, 2010Winter Storm, Delaware Beaches$1.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   For the second time within a week a major winter storm, this one with blizzard conditions at times, affected the state of Delaware. Blizzard conditions occurred at times during the afternoon and early evening of the 10th. Accumulations averaged around one foot with the highest amounts in New Castle County. Ice accretions were less than one quarter of an inch. Two storm related deaths occurred. ||In the southern half of the state, precipitation started briefly as rain or sleet around 6 p.m. EST on the 9th. As the precipitation intensity increased, the rain and sleet changed to snow by the middle of the evening. As warmer air moved in aloft, the snow changed back to sleet and…

7. Feb 16, 2003Winter Storm, Inland Sussex$1.3 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The most powerful storm to affect Delaware since the Blizzard of 1996 struck during the President's Day Weekend. Snow spread from south to north during the pre-dawn on Sunday the 16th. The heaviest snow fell during the daylight hours of the 16th. Precipitation started mixing with and changing to sleet from south to north during the evening of the 16th. In Sussex County, precipitation changed to freezing rain during the second half of the evening and even changed to plain rain toward and along the coast around midnight EST. Similar precipitation types fell overnight. Precipitation changed back to all snow before it ended during the day on the 17th in New Castle County. It remained…

8. Sep 18, 2003Tropical Storm, Delaware Beaches$1.3 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Tropical Storm Isabel caused tidal flooding up Delaware Bay, heavy rain and strong power outage producing winds. Isabel made landfall as a hurricane near Drum Inlet, North Carolina around 100 p.m. EDT on the 18th and weakened as it tracked farther inland. At one time in its life cycle, it was a powerful Category 5 hurricane when it was north of the Leewood Islands. Isabel's track took it west of Chesapeake Bay and was able to funnel water into the bay. This caused flooding along coastal areas all the way into New Castle County. Rivers and streams in New Castle County flooded from two fronts: from the heavy rain inland and also from the storm surge. The tide at Reedy Point reached…

9. Aug 11, 2001Flash Flood$1.1 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Slow moving thunderstorms with torrential rains inundated southwestern Sussex County during the late afternoon of the 11th. Doppler Radar storm total estimates reached 8.4 inches around Seaford. Aside from the far northeast and southeast part of the county, storm total estimates exceeded 3 inches in the rest of the county. The torrents led to flooding of streams and an eventual dam failure around midnight EDT on the 12th. About a dozen municipal streets were closed because of the flooding including Delaware State Route 20. About Midnight EDT, the 100 year-old dam on Hearns Pond gave way. The 60 acre pond drained out and a bulkhead along U.S. Route 13A was undercut by the flood…

10. Feb 4, 1998Coastal Flood, Delaware Beaches$1.0 million
    National Weather Service narrative

    The strongest northeaster of the winter battered Kent and Sussex Counties with damaging winds, severe coastal flooding, extensive beach erosion, several dune breaches and heavy rain. A state of emergency was declared for all or parts of Sussex County from 7 a.m. EST on the 5th through 7 p.m. EST on the 7th. The county was declared a disaster area. Damage was estimated at about 1.7 million dollars and was the worst storm to affect the area since January 1992. Hardest hit communities included North Shore and South Bethany on the ocean side, Broadkill Beach on Delaware Bay and Long Neck in the back bay. About 3,000 persons evacuated including most of the permanent residents of Dewey…

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

104°F2 times, most recently Jul 23, 2011

All-time low

−5°FJan 30, 2014

Warmest night

84°FJul 23, 2011

Coldest day

17°F2 times, most recently Feb 20, 2015

Wettest day

7.59 inJun 25, 2006

Hottest year

2012mean 59.5°F

Coldest year

2000mean 55.0°F

Wettest year

200959.97 in

Driest year

202434.99 in

Station Georgetown-delaware Coastal Airport (USW00013764), 50 ft elevation, 2.6 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1945 to October 26, 2026; 96.8% 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.

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.

Neighbouring counties

• 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 USW00013764.
• River crests NOAA National Weather Service, National Water Prediction Service river gauges, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Tide gauges NOAA CO-OPS high tide flooding counts, 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.
• Tsunamis NOAA NCEI/WDS Global Historical Tsunami Database.
• 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.