1942

2 tropical cyclones near the U.S., 6 notable earthquakes.

01

Tropical cyclones

Storms whose tracks came within 100 miles of a U.S. county.

Tropical cyclones near the U.S. in 1942

Storm	Peak	Counties ≤50 mi	States
Unnamed	Category 1	19	LA, TX
Unnamed	Category 3	64	NM, TX

02

Earthquakes

Magnitude 5 or more in the lower 48 and Hawaii, 6.5 or more in Alaska, strongest first.

Notable earthquakes of 1942

Date	Magnitude	Where	Depth, mi
Oct 21, 1942	6.6	Fish Creek Mountains, California Imperial CA	3.7
Oct 21, 1942	5.6	near Niland, CA Imperial CA	3.7
Dec 3, 1942	5.5	near Wadsworth, Nevada Washoe NV	—
Dec 17, 1942	5.1	near South Lake Tahoe, California El Dorado CA	—
Jul 11, 1942	5.0	near Tonopah, Nevada Nye NV	—
Aug 18, 1942	5.0	near Hawthorne, Nevada Mineral NV	—

03

Drought

On average 7% of lower-48 counties were in severe drought in 1942. The worst month was January 1942, with 16%.

Every year since 1895 on the drought page

Storm Prediction Center, National Hurricane Center HURDAT2, Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity, NOAA Storm Events Database, USGS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, NOAA nClimDiv Palmer Drought Severity Index. Damage is as reported at the time, not adjusted for inflation.