Santa Rosa County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Santa Rosa County: 17.
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.

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.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Sep 15, 2020Tropical Storm, Santa Rosa Coastal$116 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Hurricane Sally made landfall in Gulf Shores, AL at 5am on Wednesday, September 16th as a strong Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph. Sally produced widespread wind, storm surge, and freshwater flooding across coastal AL and the western Florida Panhandle. Flood and wind damage also extended well inland into inland southwest Alabama and south central Alabama. Sally was an extremely slow moving hurricane, which prolonged and exacerbated the local impacts. The storm was moving at less than 5 mph at the time of landfall, resulting in a long duration of tropical storm and hurricane force winds, storm surge, and torrential rainfall. ||Storm surge and resultant…

2. Sep 25, 1998Hurricane (Typhoon), Coastal Santa Rosa$70.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   See the narrative on Hurricane Georges under Alabama, Southwest, September 25-29, 1998. Preliminary estimates of agricultural damage in Northwest Florida were twenty to twenty-five million in losses to cotton, soybeans, peanuts and chickens due to the storm.

3. Apr 29, 2014Flash Flood$16.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Major to historic flash flooding took place on the evening of April 29th through the early morning of April 30th as 12 to 22 inches of rain fell across the southern half of Santa Rosa county. The highest measured rainfall was 20.39 inches 10 miles south of Milton by a CoCoRAHS observer.||Hundreds of homes and businesses experienced significant flooding with property damage estimated to be just under $10 million. The hardest hit areas included Milton, Gulf Breeze, and Navarre. In addition, widespread infrastructure damage to roads, bridges, and drainage systems was caused by the rapid rising flood waters. Infrastructure damage is estimated to have cost around $6 million.

4. Sep 24, 2002Tropical Storm, Coastal Santa Rosa$4.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   For the second time during the month the area was threatened by a tropical storm. Tropical Storm Isidore threatened the area Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We were put under a Tropical Storm Warning at 900 AM CST on September 24. The Tropical Storm Warning was dropped at 300 PM CST on September 26 as the remains of Isidore moved across eastern Mississippi. Isidore moved ashore over the Southeast Louisiana Coast between 200 and 300 AM CST on September 26. Although the center of Isidore did not move over our area, the strongest winds and heaviest rains were east of the center with most of the damage across Southwest Alabama and Northwest Florida.Some of the winds recorded across…

5. Mar 26, 2005Hail$2.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Large hail fell across the central part of Santa Rosa county. The large hail fell from near Milton to near Allentown. The largest confirmed hail was the size of baseballs. Larger hail was reported but no confirmation of these reports were ever received. The large hail damaged several helicopters and airplanes at Whiting Field Naval Air Station. Several buildings on the base also suffered roof damage. Several automobile dealerships around Milton reported hail damage to vehicles. A group of bicycle riders were out on a morning ride when the storm developed. They had to get off the road and hold their bicycles over them to protect their bodies from the large hail. One of the riders…

6. Mar 3, 1999Tornado$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A weak F1 tornado (winds from 73 to 85 mph) moved through the Country Breeze Estates subdivision along County Rd. 399. The tornado, occurring around 130 AM CST, was about 50 to 75 yards wide with a damage path of approximately one half statute mile. 55 homes sustained some degree of structural damage, mainly with roofs. Of these, 20 suffered major damage.

7. Jan 5, 2002Thunderstorm Wind$720,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A thunderstorm moved in from the Gulf of Mexico just before midnight. The storm moved from the Gulf of Mexico across Jessica Way then across U. S. Highway 98, where a strip mall was damaged, then down Whispering Pines Blvd. The winds from the storm damaged 29 homes on Jessica Way and Whispering Pines Blvd. as it moved to the northeast. Most of the damage to the homes were shingles blown from roofs and fences blown down. Several trees were also blown onto vehicles and flying debris broke several windshields. The most significant damage occurred to the strip mall along U. S. Highway 98. The winds from the storm hit the mall broadside and shifted several columns holding the front of…

8. Oct 13, 2001Tornado$625,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   An F1 tornado occurred near Byron Street just to the northwest of Milton High School. Most of the damage produced by the tornado was to trees and to the roofs of homes, with one of the homes having it's roof completely torn off. The most significant damage which resulted from the tornado occurred at a storage facility near Stewart Street. Several units of the long storage buildings were damaged, and three rental trucks were also damaged. Shortly after passing north of the storage facility, the tornado lifted back into the cloud.

9. Jan 13, 2006Tornado$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   An F1 tornado touched down near the intersection of County Road 178 and State Highway 87. Several manufactured homes were damaged where the tornado first touched down. The tornado tracked northeast and crossed Highway 87 and caused only minor damage east of the highway. Near Highway 87 a home had most of the roof torn off. The roof of the home had reportedly been damaged, twice, by high winds associated with hurricanes Ivan and Dennis over the past year and a half. Both times the roof was repaired. No injuries were reported.

10. Mar 8, 1998Flash Flood$500,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A slow moving complex weather system moved through southwest Alabama and northwest Florida on March 8, bringing with it copious amounts of rainfall. The Mobile WSR-88D estimated rainfall totals of six to ten inches across the area on March 8. Residents in north Santa Rosa and north Okaloosa counties estimated up to twelve inches of rain fell. The heavy rains began during the early morning hours in Escambia county and moved slowly east across Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties during the mid morning hours. The heavy rainfall caused widespread flooding across the area. The flooding began in Escambia county and then spread east across Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties. Most secondary…

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 14, 1980

All-time low

5°FJan 21, 1985

Warmest night

85°FJul 14, 1980

Coldest day

25°FDec 23, 1989

Wettest day

15.55 inApr 29, 2014

Snowiest day

8.9 inJan 21, 2025

Hottest year

2023mean 72.0°F

Coldest year

1983mean 65.3°F

Wettest year

195393.32 in

Driest year

195428.52 in

Snowiest season

8.9 in2024-25

Station Pensacola Regional Airport (USW00013899), 118 ft elevation, 10.2 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1948 to October 24, 2026; 99.9% 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.

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 USW00013899.
• 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.