Dukes County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Dukes County: 0.
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. Oct 29, 2012Coastal Flood, Dukes$10.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   In Vineyard Haven, Beach Road closed due to six inches of water flooding the road. In Edgartown, Dock Street was closed due to a foot of water flooding the road. Atlantic Drive and Main Street were closed. In Oak Bluffs, Beach Road was closed from Oak Bluffs to Edgartown due to storm surge. Sylvia State Beach Road was impassable. In Tisbury, Lagoon Pond Road from Skiff Avenue to Veterans Park was closed. Water Street, Beach Street, Owen Park, and Five Corners were closed. In Chilmark, dock and fuel pumps were flooded. In Menemsha, North Road was closed. All this was due to moderate coastal flooding.

2. Jan 7, 1996Heavy Snow, Dukes$800,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   An intense East Coast low pressure system moved northeast from eastern Georgia passing along the coast of the Carolinas and then close to 40 degrees North and 70 degrees West. This storm was one of the most significant winter storms to hit southern New England in the past 20 years and was named "The Blizzard of '96" as it dumped record snowfalls from the mid-Atlantic states to southern New England. Technically, this storm only reached a true blizzard by National Weather Service criteria for a few hours in a small section of eastern Massachusetts around South Weymouth during the early morning hours on January 8th. Very heavy snowfall, which was measured in feet, was the main effect…

3. Aug 28, 2011Tropical Storm, Dukes$267,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Numerous trees were downed on Martha's Vineyard. The Automated Surface Observing System at Vineyard Haven (KMVY) recorded sustained wind speeds of 39 knots (45 mph) and gusts to 54 knots (62 mph).

4. Jan 23, 2005Storm Surge/Tide, Dukes$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A major winter storm brought heavy snow, high winds, and coastal flooding to southern New England. In Massachusetts, blizzard conditions were reported on Nantucket during the height of the storm, and this was the first blizzard to affect the Bay State since the April Fools storm of 1997. Near blizzard conditions were reported elsewhere as the storm dumped 1 to 3 feet of snow and produced wind gusts as high as 65 mph near the coast.The highest snowfall totals of 2 to 3 feet were reported in eastern Massachusetts, especially along the coast from Boston to Cape Cod. Official snowfall totals included 24.1 inches at Worcester Airport, which was a top 5 snowstorm for Worcester since…

5. Feb 24, 1998Coastal Flood, Dukes$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The second powerful nor'easter to affect the region in less than a week brought a deluge of rain to southeastern Massachusetts, gale force winds along the coast, and coastal flooding to Chatham on Cape Cod and to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. An extremely intense low pressure system moving to the northeast and passing just to the southeast of Nantucket had a central barometric pressure just under 29 inches of mercury. Maximum rainfall totals for this storm exceeded 4 inches in Plymouth County along a north-south axis extending from Plymouth on the south end to Hingham and Hull on the north end. At least 3 inches fell across southern Bristol County, almost all of Plymouth…

6. Nov 13, 2003High Wind, Dukes$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Low pressure moving through the St. Lawrence valley brought high winds to much of southern New England. In Massachusetts, peak wind gusts of 50 to 60 mph brought down trees and power lines over much of the state, and disrupted electric service to about 12,000 customers. The hardest hit area was in Western Massachusetts, where power was not restored for two days.

7. Mar 6, 2003Winter Storm, Dukes$40,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A fast moving winter storm passing south of New England brought heavy snow to south central and southeast Massachusetts where totals of 5 to 10 inches were common. The snow began during the late morning hours and ended during the evening, and there were several reports of thunder and lightning that afternoon.The snow began falling so quickly at the onset that motorists in southeast Massachusetts were caught off guard. This created a mess on area roadways, including a chain-reaction pileup of some one hundred vehicles on the southbound lanes of Interstate 95 in Attleboro. No serious injuries were reported, but hundreds of people were stranded for several hours after authorities…

8. Jan 23, 2016Blizzard, Dukes$30,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Ten to fifteen inches of snow fell across Martha's Vineyard. Snow was difficult to measure as very strong, gusty winds occurred simultaneously, resulting in blowing and drifting snow. Winds were sustained at 43 mph and gusted as high as 59 mph as measured by the Automated Surface Observing System at Martha's Vineyard Airport (KMVY). A tree was downed onto wires on Paulding Avenue in Oak Bluffs, resulting in the tree catching on fire. Power lines were down in multiple locations across the island. A tree was downed onto Barnes Road in Oak Bluffs.

9. Dec 9, 2005High Wind, Dukes$30,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A low pressure system centered near the Delaware coast intensified rapidly as it tracked quickly northeast across southern New England, producing near-blizzard conditions across Massachusetts around mid afternoon. Damaging winds, whiteout conditions, and approximately one hour of thunder snow occurred across most of the region. In addition, snowfall amounts ranged from around 2 inches across south coastal locations, to as much as 16 inches across northeast and north central Massachusetts. The combination of high winds and snow caused approximately 150,000 electric customers to lose power.Damaging wind gusts between 50 and 60 mph were common across Cape Cod and the rest of…

10. Oct 27, 2021High Wind, Dukes$28,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Extremely strong winds occurred on Martha's Vineyard. In Edgartown at 431 AM EDT (331 AM EST), a mesonet station recorded a wind gust to 94 mph! A Weatherflow mesonet site at Vineyard Haven recorded a wind gust to 87 mph at 422 AM EDT. The ASOS at Martha's Vineyard Airport (KMVY) recorded a gust to 62 mph at 346 AM EDT. There were scattered trees and wires downed. According to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, damages reached $28,438, mainly for debris cleanup.

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

99°FAug 27, 1948

All-time low

−9°F2 times, most recently Feb 3, 1961

Warmest night

76°FSep 4, 2010

Coldest day

7°FDec 26, 1980

Wettest day

7.02 inSep 3, 1972

Snowiest day

16.0 in2 times, most recently Jan 27, 2015

Hottest year

2012mean 54.7°F

Coldest year

1960mean 47.2°F

Wettest year

197265.43 in

Driest year

196530.08 in

Snowiest season

67.0 in2004-05

Station Edgartown (USC00192501), 30 ft elevation, 5.0 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1946 to October 25, 2026; 99.3% 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.

• 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 USC00192501.
• 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.