Putnam County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Putnam County: 2.
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.

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 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.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Mar 1, 1998Flood, Putnam$3.7 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Total flooding related to El Nino, More than 2800 homes and more than 175 businesses destroyed.

2. Jul 2, 2003Lightning$225,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Home totally involved when fire fighters arrived on scene. House on Baden Powell Rd, West Putnam. 28 year old two story home valued at $150K, with $75K for contents. Two family pets (cats) killed in fire.

3. Jun 22, 2004Lightning$143,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Bardin residence struck by lightning and destroyed. Home at 1221 Bardin Rd. A 2001 Chrysler Voyager was also destroyed.

4. Jun 25, 2004Lightning$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Florida EOC reported home destroyed by lightning fire.

5. Nov 12, 2003Dense Fog, Putnam$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Chain-reaction wreck on U.S. highway 17 near Bostwick in Putnam County, Florida. Visibilities between one sixteenth and one quarter of a mile reported by Naval Air Station Jacksonville 20 miles north of wreck site and Pinecastle Bombing Range (KNAE) 20 miles south of the wreck site (two closest representative observations without marine influence). A truck crossed U.S. 17, near the Seminole Electric Plant and into the path of several vehicles. Over the next several minutes several vehicles impacted the original wreck with two fatalities occurring early in the event. Seven injured, with four critical, dense fog prevented aerial transport of critically injured by "Lifeflight"…

6. Mar 19, 2008Wildfire, Putnam$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Winds and low relative humidity values rekindled a woods fire which then rapidly spread destroying a mobile home on Knollwood Road off U.S. Highway 17 in Southern Clay County. Due to the wind and heavily wooded area fire units from Clay, Putnam, and St Johns Counties and tractors from the Florida Division of Forestry fought the fire. The mobile home was reported to be a total loss.

7. Jul 27, 2004Lightning$90,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning struck home and caused extensive damage.

8. Oct 7, 1996Tornado$65,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The tornado was up and down along it's path. One home destroyed, one business with major damage, three homes with major damage, 39 with minor damage, and 20 other buildings had minor damage.

9. May 4, 2005Lightning$55,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lighting completely destroyed a mobile home and its contents.

10. Jan 2, 1999Tornado$35,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Four mobile homes with minor damage, one with major. Tornado was weak, and mainly at tree top level. Continue into St. Johns County.

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°FJun 15, 2011

All-time low

10°FJan 21, 1985

Warmest night

81°FSep 16, 2018

Coldest day

29°FJan 21, 1985

Wettest day

6.95 inJun 24, 2012

Hottest year

2019mean 72.2°F

Coldest year

1963mean 67.5°F

Wettest year

201771.31 in

Driest year

201133.38 in

Station Gainesville Regional Airport (USW00012816), 133 ft elevation, 33.8 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1960 to October 26, 2026; 100.0% 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 USW00012816.
• 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.