Carbon County

Every recorded tornado

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

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 (1).

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. Jan 5, 2005Winter Storm, Carbon$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   One of the worst ice storms in history to affect the Poconos occurred on January 5th and 6th. As nasty as that storm was, it was exacerbated by another ice storm on January 8th. At one point, nearly three-quarters of Carbon County was without power and nearly 46,000 homes and businesses in Monroe County lost power. Systemwide 238,000 Pennsylvania Power and Light customers lost power and the total repair cost was estimated at $25,000,000. Metropolitan Edison reported about 40,000 of its customers lost power. Thousands upon thousands of trees were knocked down or damaged. The number of outages cascaded. There were only 1,000 the morning of the 6th, but that increased to 27,000 the…

2. Jan 19, 1996Flood, Carbon$3.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The combination of snowmelt from the previous week's two storms, unseasonably warm temperatures and an additional one to two inches of rain caused the flash flooding of almost every small stream and significant roadway flooding the afternoon and early evening hours on the 19th. Major flooding of the larger streams and rivers in Pennsylvania continued through the 21st. The flooding caused three deaths, all in Montgomery County, three injuries and about $50 million dollars in property damage. All of Pennsylvania was declared a disaster area and extra public assistance was given to Northampton, Bucks and Monroe Counties, the hardest hit counties in the Southern Poconos and Southeast…

3. Jun 27, 2006Flash Flood$2.1 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Several days of heavy rain throughout the Lehigh River Basin culminated with flooding along the main stem of the Lehigh River. President George W. Bush declared Carbon County a disaster area. Sporadic periods of heavy rain started on the 23rd, but the most widespread and heaviest rain fell from the late afternoon of the 27th into the morning of the 28th. This caused flash flooding along smaller streams and exacerbated the ongoing flooding along the major rivers. Event totals in Carbon County averaged eight to twelve inches.Governor Ed Rendell declared a disaster emergency in the state on the 28th. In Eastern Pennsylvania approximately 5000 homes, apartments and businesses were…

4. Feb 16, 2003Heavy Snow, Carbon$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The most powerful storm to affect Eastern Pennsylvania since the Blizzard of 1996 struck during the President's Day Weekend. Snow began falling around daybreak on Sunday the 16th in and around Philadelphia and then spread slowly north. It reached Reading around 9 a.m. EST, the Lehigh Valley during the early afternoon and the Poconos toward sunset. The heaviest snow fell in Philadelphia and its suburbs during the day into the early evening of the 16th. The snow mixed with sleet in Philadelphia and Delaware Counties from the evening of the 16th through the morning of the 17th. The heaviest snow in Berks County and the Lehigh Valley fell during the first half of the day on the 17th…

5. Sep 18, 2003High Wind, Carbon$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Tropical Storm Isabel produced strong power outage producing winds, moderate tidal flooding along the Delaware River and stream flooding in Chester County. Isabel made landfall as a hurricane near Drum Inlet, North Carolina around 100 p.m. EDT on the 18th and weakened as it tracked farther inland. At one time in its life cycle, it was a powerful Category 5 hurricane when it was north of the Leewood Islands. Winds gusted up to 60 mph in Eastern Pennsylvania and downed countless numbers of trees, tree limbs and power lines. It was the worst outage on record for PECO Energy in southeastern Pennsylvania. About 572,425 of its customers lost power. This exceeded the outages that…

6. Jan 7, 1996Blizzard, Carbon$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Blizzard of '96, the second coined "STORM OF THE CENTURY" of this decade brought record breaking snow to most of Southeast Pennsylvania and paralyzed the region for several days, caused most municipalities to exceed their annual snow budgets during this one storm, caused several building collapses and caused directly or directly 42 deaths and countless injuries. Six persons died of hypothermia, 4 in Philadelphia, 1 in Delaware County and 1 in Lehigh County. Some were homeless persons, but one woman in Allentown accidentally locked herself out of her home. Twenty-nine persons suffered heart attacks and died while shoveling snow, using snowblowers or trying to walk in the deep…

7. Aug 17, 2007Hail$750,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Moth ball to tennis ball (2.5 inch diameter) hail fell across central and southeast Carbon County and caused considerable damage. In Nesquehoning, golf ball size hail covered the parking lot and damaged the vehicles of emergency responders at the 911 center. Hail as large as tennis balls fell in Franklin Township, as large as hen eggs around Palmerton, as large as quarters in Lehighton and as large as moth balls fell in Jim Thorpe. Hail also fell in Weatherly. Hail damage included broken home and vehicle windows, dented siding and broken skylights.

8. Sep 16, 1999High Wind, Carbon$400,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Hurricane Floyd battered Eastern Pennsylvania (especially Southeast sections around Philadelphia) on September 16th and brought with it torrential and in some places record breaking rains and damaging winds. The hurricane caused widespread flash flooding as storm totals averaged around six inches in the Poconos and Berks County, eight inches in the Lehigh Valley and from eight to twelve inches in the Greater Philadelphia Metropolitan Area. Six people died directly from the hurricane - four drownings and two persons were hit by trees. The hurricane also indirectly contributed to the death of about seven other persons. About 40 persons were seriously injured. There were hundreds of…

9. Aug 17, 2007Hail$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A second severe thunderstorm of the day dropped baseball size hail in the Penn's Peak area of Penn Forest Township and quarter size hail in Palmerton.

10. Apr 15, 2004Wildfire, Carbon$100,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Two families lost their barn and mobile home when a brush fire burned out of control and consumed both structures. The owner was burning a brush pile and the fire moved to the barn which was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived. The mobile home had also started to burn. The fire was declared under control at 1145 a.m. EDT. Gusty north winds were believed to have carried sparks from the brush fire to the barn. Four adults and two children were displaced by the fire. The American Red Cross provided the family with lodging and vouchers. The peak wind gust (from the north) for the day was 32 mph at both the Lehigh Valley and Wilkes-Barre International Airports.

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

105°FJul 3, 1966

All-time low

−15°FJan 21, 1994

Warmest night

79°FJul 15, 1995

Coldest day

2°FJan 19, 1994

Wettest day

8.71 inOct 8, 2005

Snowiest day

30.2 inJan 23, 2016

Hottest year

2012mean 54.6°F

Coldest year

1967mean 49.0°F

Wettest year

201171.72 in

Driest year

198029.82 in

Snowiest season

75.4 in1995-96

Station Allentown Lehigh Vly International Airport (USW00014737), 385 ft elevation, 20.6 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1948 to October 26, 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 USW00014737.
• 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.