Bronx County

Every recorded tornado

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

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

The National Weather Service sets flood stages for 1 gauge here but lists no crests for it.

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.

Mapped landslides

Mapped by NASA (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. Sep 1, 2021Flash Flood$60.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Flash flooding resulted in an estimated $60 million in damages across the Bronx, and an estimated $300 million city-wide. This estimate only includes FEMA and SBA fund requests.

2. Aug 4, 2020Tropical Storm, Bronx$3.4 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Nearby by LaGuardia Airport reported a maximum sustained wind of 53 mph at 1236 pm LST and a peak wind gust of 69 mph at 1234 pm LST. Central Park had a peak gust of 48 mph at 1156 am LST and Lehman College had a peak gust of 63 mph at 1245 pm LST. ||These type of winds across the borough resulted in numerous trees and tree limbs being downed, power outages, damages to homes and automobiles, and disruption to mass transit. The NYC Office of Emergency Management reported 31,537 power outages. NYCEM has calculated property damages of $3,440,875 in the borough.||There were no reports of coastal flooding as the highest storm surge did not coincide with high tide and was during a…

3. Oct 19, 1996Coastal Flood, Bronx$3.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   On Friday October 18th, a strong low pressure system developed on a cold front over the DelMarVa Peninsula. With a high pressure system in place across Northern New England, the low intensified and moved slowly off the Southern New Jersey Coast on Saturday, the 19th.East winds developed across the region during the 18th. As the difference in pressure systems increased, east winds also increased. Over the sea, sustained wind speeds reached gale force (34 knots) Friday night and continued through Saturday. Strong east winds blowing over a long distance caused tides to average 3 to 6 feet above normal. Tide anomalies were 5.49 feet above normal at Willets Point at 5 pm and 3.62 feet…

4. Aug 18, 2009Thunderstorm Wind$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Around 100 trees were reported down in the Bronx by the New York City Office of Emergency Management. Several of these trees fell on automobiles.

5. Aug 12, 2021Lightning$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Con Ed reports substation fire caused by lightning strike.

6. Jul 25, 2010Tornado$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The tornado touched down on the grounds of the Hebrew Home for the Aged along the east bank of the Hudson River west of Palisade Avenue in Riverdale. High winds flattened a flag pole, downed trees and snapped and sheared off many tree tops. A few trees crashed through first floor windows that caused them to shatter resulting in 7 minor injuries. On the south side of the building, large trees were totally stripped of their canopies and one became a projectile as it was wedged between an upstream tree. An eyewitness account at this location stated that he saw funnel clouds develop upstream over the Hudson as the thunderstorm approached.||Several eyewitnesses along the southeast path…

7. Apr 3, 2016High Wind, Bronx$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A wind gust up to 64 mph was measured at JFK International Airport at 533 am. There was a partial building collapse of a vacant building on Hill Road around 730 am.

8. Feb 24, 2016Strong Wind, Bronx$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Near City Island in the Bronx, a 5X25 foot section of facade collapsed on Fordham Street due to the strong winds. Nearby, a 55 mph wind was reported at LaGuardia Airport around 1149 pm.

9. Apr 13, 2020High Wind, Bronx$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   At 1129 am, social media reported a tree down on Clay Avenue between East 168 and East 167 street. Throughout the city, 565 trees were knocked down, and 268 tree limbs were downed due to the winds according to New York City Emergency Management.

10. Apr 16, 2018Strong Wind, Bronx$50,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Around 1030 am, a tree was knocked down closing all northbound lanes of the Bronx River Parkway at East Gunhill Road per emergency management.

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

107°FJul 3, 1966

All-time low

−7°FFeb 15, 1943

Warmest night

86°F3 times, most recently Jul 19, 2013

Coldest day

8°FJan 21, 1985

Wettest day

6.80 inSep 1, 2021

Snowiest day

27.9 inJan 23, 2016

Hottest year

2016mean 58.7°F

Coldest year

1940mean 51.5°F

Wettest year

201165.34 in

Driest year

196522.17 in

Snowiest season

77.9 in1995-96

Station Laguardia Airport (USW00014732), 10 ft elevation, 4.8 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1939 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 USW00014732.
• 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.