Seneca County

Every recorded tornado

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

Mapped landslides

Mapped by USGS Conterminous (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. Apr 4, 2003Ice Storm, Seneca$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A stationary front was west to east across Pennsylvania during the 3rd and 4th of April. Areas of low pressure moved along the front bringing precipitation to upstate New York. A large area of high pressure, centered over Hudson Bay Canada helped to keep cold air at the surface. The morning of the 5th low pressure moved northeast to Erie, Pennsylvania then to northeast New York that evening. A trailing cold front brought with it an end to the precipitation from west to east. Patchy freezing rain was across these counties first the night of the 3rd into the 4th. At this time the freezing rain was most widespread in Northern Oneida County. Steady widespread freezing rain started…

2. Aug 14, 2018Flash Flood$1.2 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Severe flash flooding occurred in this area. The entire cliff side was washed away into Seneca Lake. Multiple water rescues and evacuations were in progress. A woman was trapped in the wreckage of her home, and was rescued from the lake by small boat.

3. Jan 19, 1996Flash Flood$500,000
4. Jan 3, 2003Heavy Snow, Seneca$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A slow moving nor'easter moved from the southeast United States early on the 3rd to the Delmarva peninsula that evening. The storm then moved to the southeast New England coast the morning of the 4th. Snow spread well ahead of the storm into central New York the evening of the 2nd. The snow was heavy at times on the 3rd during the day into the evening. Snowfall amounts were 8 to 14 inches in the central southern tier, Finger Lakes region, and northern Oneida County and 10 to 20 inches elsewhere. The highest amounts of up to 25 inches were in Broome, Tioga, southern Cortland and southern Chenango Counties. Water equivalents were mostly half an inch in the western areas to an inch…

5. Sep 6, 1998Thunderstorm Wind$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A long lived severe convective wind system or derecho moved into northern portions of the county just before 100 am EDT. These same storms had caused considerable damage upstream in the Rochester area. Widespread wind damage occurred in the town of Waterloo and also across Seneca Falls. Most of the damage was in the form of downed trees and power lines. From approximately 1255 am to 110 am EDT, the town of Waterloo experienced strong damaging winds and large hail. Many roads in the center of town had to be closed through the morning hours on Labor Day as crews worked to clear fallen trees, live wires, and damaged traffic signals. Downstream in Seneca Falls, similar damage was…

6. Apr 18, 2004Thunderstorm Wind$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorm winds blew down trees and wires especially on the east side of Seneca Lake. In Romulus a radio tower was bent over onto a building. Minor property damage occurred. Some utility poles were blown over or damaged.

7. Oct 26, 2021Flash Flood$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Widespread flash flooding occurred throughout the city.

8. Aug 18, 2021Flash Flood$140,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Severe flash flooding caused a structure to collapse.

9. Aug 3, 2014Flash Flood$125,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Water was flowing over numerous roads and into several basements throughout the central part of the county, including the hardest hit area of Fayette.

10. Aug 14, 2018Flash Flood$125,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Many vehicles and seasonal campers washed down Mill Creek.

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°FJul 22, 2011

All-time low

−16°F2 times, most recently Jan 22, 2005

Warmest night

81°FAug 2, 2006

Coldest day

−1°FJan 18, 1982

Wettest day

3.92 inSep 26, 1975

Snowiest day

36.0 inMar 14, 1993

Hottest year

2012mean 51.1°F

Coldest year

2009mean 45.4°F

Wettest year

197244.91 in

Driest year

198823.10 in

Snowiest season

122.2 in1992-93

Station Geneva Rsch Farm (USC00303184), 718 ft elevation, 10.8 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1969 to October 27, 2026; 99.0% 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 USC00303184.
• 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.