1948

5 tropical cyclones near the U.S., 4 notable earthquakes.

01

Tropical cyclones

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

Tropical cyclones near the U.S. in 1948

Storm	Peak	Counties ≤50 mi	States
Unnamed	Tropical storm	4	AL, FL
Unnamed	Category 1	45	AL, LA, MS
Unnamed	Category 4	15	FL
Unnamed	Category 3	6	FL
Unnamed	Category 1	0	—

02

Earthquakes

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

Notable earthquakes of 1948

Date	Magnitude	Where	Depth, mi
May 14, 1948	7.1	near King Cove, Alaska Aleutians East AK	15.5
Dec 4, 1948	6.0	Desert Hot Springs, California Riverside CA	3.7
Dec 29, 1948	6.0	near Verdi, California Sierra CA	—
Feb 24, 1948	5.2	near San Clemente Is. (SE tip), CA Los Angeles CA	3.7

03

Drought

On average 3% of lower-48 counties were in severe drought in 1948. The worst month was October 1948, with 8%.

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.