Kings County

Every recorded tornado

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

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 1, 2021Flash Flood$60.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

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

2. Sep 16, 2010Tornado$8.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A National Weather Service Storm Survey Team confirmed a tornado near Park Slope in Brooklyn.||In the northern portion of Prospect Park, there were signs of tree damage that converged towards a well defined narrow path. Tree tops were twisted and sheared off. The location of the tornado was bounded by Prospect Park on the west, Flatbush Avenue on the east and Subway Grand Army Plaza to the north. The tornado formed just southwest of the Brooklyn Public Library and lifted around 2 miles northeast of Park Slope.

3. Aug 4, 2020Tropical Storm, Kings (Brooklyn)$7.1 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A woman was critically injured when a falling tree branch hit her while walking on Dumont Avenue in Brownsville Brooklyn around 12pm LST.||Brooklyn College measured a maximum sustained wind of 33 mph at 1240 pm LST and a peak wind gust of 60 mph at 1235 pm LST. Nearby JFK International Airport reported a maximum sustained wind of 51 mph at 1236 pm LST and a peak wind gust of 70 mph at 1225 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 26,338 power outages. NYCEM has calculated property damages of…

4. Oct 19, 1996Flash Flood$1.5 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 slowly intensified and moved slowly off the Southern New Jersey Coast during Saturday October 19th.The increasing difference in pressures caused strong and gusty east winds, which also transported abundant moisture from the Atlantic Ocean across the region. Heavy flood producing rains along with minor to major coastal flooding occurred.Rain began during the early morning on the 19th and ended shortly after midnight on the 20th. Three to five inches of rain fell, with isolated higher amounts.Heavy rain…

5. Oct 29, 2012High Wind, Kings (Brooklyn)$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A wind gust up to 69 mph was reported in Coney Island at 642 pm, and winds of 58 mph were reported in Flatbush at 905 pm. A male and female, both age 24, were killed when a tree fell on them.

6. Sep 8, 2012Tornado$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This is the fourth segment of a combined waterspout/tornado that originated as a waterspout about 1 mile south of the tip of Breezy Point in ANZ-355 (Coastal Waters From Sandy Hook NJ to Fire Island Inlet NY out to 20 Nautical Miles) at 10:56 am. The waterspout then reached land and crossed Breezy Point Queens as an EF0 tornado from 10:58 to 10:59 am. The tornado then went back over water, traversing the Eastern Arm of Lower New York Harbor (ANZ-338), to the west of Rockaway Inlet, from 10:59-11:00 am as a waterspout. At 11:01 am, the waterspout made landfall as a tornado to the southeast of Plumb Beach, about 750 feet south of the Belt Parkway. The tornado traversed northeast…

7. Apr 3, 2016High Wind, Kings (Brooklyn)$200,000
   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 at 535 Fourth Avenue around 8 am. In Park Slope, there was a partial roof collapse due to the high winds on 4th Avenue for a building under construction. This occurred around 1045 am. Measured sustained winds of 46 mph were reported in Bay Ridge at 615 am.

8. Mar 28, 2016Strong Wind, Kings (Brooklyn)$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A pedestrain was struck and injured by a piece of flying wood near a construction site at 8th Avenue and 56th Street in Sunset Park at 6 pm. At 8 pm, a tree was knocked down onto power lines near 27th Street and Avenue P in Marine Park.

9. Feb 24, 2016Strong Wind, Kings (Brooklyn)$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Emergency management reported a sidewalk shed collapsed on Scholes Street at the Williamsburg House. This occurred at 942 pm.

10. Dec 21, 2012High Wind, Kings (Brooklyn)$100,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    High winds knocked down scaffolding at Bay Parkway and 72nd street at 3:17 am. Scaffold collapsed at 47th and 8th Avenues at 4:30 am.

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 9, 1936

All-time low

−15°FFeb 9, 1934

Warmest night

84°F4 times, most recently Jul 22, 2011

Coldest day

2°FDec 30, 1917

Wettest day

8.28 inSep 23, 1882

Snowiest day

27.3 inJan 23, 2016

Hottest year

2023mean 58.0°F

Coldest year

1888mean 49.5°F

Wettest year

198380.56 in

Driest year

196526.09 in

Snowiest season

75.6 in1995-96

Station Ny City Cntrl Park (USW00094728), 140 ft elevation, 8.8 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1869 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 USW00094728.
• 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.