FEMA disaster type · OpenFEMA declarations
Tropical Storm disasters in the United States
FEMA disaster declarations classified as "Tropical Storm" from 2023 to 2026 - which states are hit most often and how the count has changed over time.
- 39
- FEMA declarations
- 17
- States affected
- 2023
- Earliest year
- 2026
- Latest year
The verdict
According to FEMA's disaster declaration history, tropical storm ranks #11 of the 27 distinct disaster types the agency has declared, accounting for 0.7% of all 5,218 declarations on record. It is declared more often than 62% of the other declaration types FEMA tracks, based on total historical volume.
- #11 of 27
- FEMA disaster types, by declaration volume
- 0.7%
- share of all 5,218 FEMA declarations
- 39
- tropical storm declarations, 2023–2026
Ranking reflects the count of Presidentially declared federal disasters per OpenFEMA, not event severity or economic loss; a rare declaration type can still be individually catastrophic.
How does Tropical Storm compare?
Tropical Storm vs. every FEMA declaration type
Declaration volume across all tracked incident types
39 Top 41% higher than 59% of 27 disaster types
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more disaster types. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 · 2026-08-03
What shapes the tropical storm record?
States with the most tropical storm declarations
Wider bars = more FEMA declarations of this type
- Florida
Florida
6 declarations
- Northern Mariana Islands
Northern Mariana Islands
5 declarations
- North Carolina
North Carolina
4 declarations
- Georgia
Georgia
3 declarations
- Guam
Guam
3 declarations
- South Carolina
South Carolina
3 declarations
- New York 2
New York
2 declarations
- Tennessee 2
Tennessee
2 declarations
- Virginia 2
Virginia
2 declarations
- U.S. Virgin Islands 2
U.S. Virgin Islands
2 declarations
What this shows Florida leads with 6 tropical storm declarations among the states shown.
Tropical Storm declarations by year
Federal declaration cadence for this incident type across the OpenFEMA record.
Peak year in this series: 2024 (22 declarations). A declaration is a federal assistance trigger, not a raw event count.
How common are Tropical Storm disasters in the U.S.?
FEMA has issued 39 federal disaster declarations classified as tropical storm between 2023 and 2026, affecting 17 states and territories. Each declaration represents a formal federal recognition that an event exceeded state and local response capacity, unlocking Public Assistance, Individual Assistance, or Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding depending on the declaration class (DR, EM, or FM). Raw declaration counts therefore measure the federal response footprint, which is a lagging and thresholded indicator: smaller events handled entirely at the state level never appear, and declaration thresholds have been recalibrated over the dataset's multi-decade history.
Annual declaration counts move in fits and starts rather than a smooth trend. The peak year on record was 2024, with 22 tropical storm declarations issued that single year, a clustering driven by major multi-state events and the federal government's declaration cadence. The most recent year on record is 2026, with 4 declarations. Trends over the 3+ year history reflect a mix of policy recalibration and genuine year-to-year hazard variability.
Where these declarations land varies widely by state. The three states with the most tropical storm declarations on record are FL (6 declarations), MP (5 declarations), NC (4 declarations), largely explained by regional exposure rather than population size alone. States with the fewest declarations, including PR (1), VT (1), WV (1), a sign that most local events here never crossed the federal declaration threshold.
Which federal declaration does tropical storm actually get?
Most of this type's declarations are Emergencies, not Major Disasters: 56% EM against 44% DR across 39 declarations. An Emergency declaration is the narrower, faster instrument -- it supports protective measures and direct federal assistance as a situation unfolds, capped well below a Major Disaster. A type weighted toward EM tends to be one where the federal role is to help states cope during the event rather than to fund reconstruction after it.
Declarations by State
| # | State | Declarations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florida FL | 6 |
| 2 | Northern Mariana Islands MP | 5 |
| 3 | North Carolina NC | 4 |
| 4 | Georgia GA | 3 |
| 5 | Guam GU | 3 |
| 6 | South Carolina SC | 3 |
| 7 | New York NY | 2 |
| 8 | Tennessee TN | 2 |
| 9 | Virginia VA | 2 |
| 10 | U.S. Virgin Islands VI | 2 |
| 11 | California CA | 1 |
| 12 | Kentucky KY | 1 |
| 13 | Louisiana LA | 1 |
| 14 | Pennsylvania PA | 1 |
| 15 | Puerto Rico PR | 1 |
| 16 | Vermont VT | 1 |
| 17 | West Virginia WV | 1 |
Declarations by Year
| Year | Declarations |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 4 |
| 2025 | 7 |
| 2024 | 22 |
| 2023 | 6 |
Recent Tropical Storm Declarations
Download all 39 declarations as CSV . Source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0. The table below lists the 30 most recent; the file carries every one.
| DR# | Title | State | Type | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3647 | TYPHOON BAVI | MP | EM | 2026-07-03 |
| 4927 | TROPICAL STORM ARTHUR | LA | DR | 2026-06-30 |
| 3645 | TYPHOON SINLAKU | MP | EM | 2026-04-11 |
| 3644 | TYPHOON SINLAKU | GU | EM | 2026-04-11 |
| 4851 | POST-TROPICAL STORM HELENE | WV | DR | 2024-12-09 |
| 4850 | TROPICAL STORM ERNESTO | PR | DR | 2024-11-27 |
| 4848 | REMNANTS OF HURRICANE HELENE | KY | DR | 2024-11-26 |
| 4841 | TROPICAL STORM ERNESTO | VI | DR | 2024-10-25 |
| 4837 | POTENTIAL TROPICAL CYCLONE EIGHT | NC | DR | 2024-10-19 |
| 4832 | TROPICAL STORM HELENE | TN | DR | 2024-10-02 |
| 4831 | TROPICAL STORM HELENE | VA | DR | 2024-10-01 |
| 4835 | TROPICAL STORM DEBBY | SC | DR | 2024-09-29 |
| 3621 | POST-TROPICAL CYCLONE HELENE | VA | EM | 2024-09-29 |
| 4827 | TROPICAL STORM HELENE | NC | DR | 2024-09-28 |
| 3620 | TROPICAL STORM HELENE | TN | EM | 2024-09-27 |
| 3616 | HURRICANE HELENE | GA | EM | 2024-09-26 |
| 3617 | HURRICANE HELENE | NC | EM | 2024-09-26 |
| 3619 | HURRICANE HELENE | SC | EM | 2024-09-26 |
| 4821 | TROPICAL STORM DEBBY | GA | DR | 2024-09-24 |
| 3615 | TROPICAL STORM HELENE | FL | EM | 2024-09-24 |
| 4825 | REMNANTS OF TROPICAL STORM DEBBY | NY | DR | 2024-09-24 |
| 4818 | SEVERE STORM AND FLOODING | NY | DR | 2024-09-20 |
| 4815 | TROPICAL STORM DEBBY | PA | DR | 2024-09-11 |
| 3611 | TROPICAL STORM ERNESTO | VI | EM | 2024-08-18 |
| 4806 | HURRICANE DEBBY | FL | DR | 2024-08-10 |
| 3609 | TROPICAL DEPRESSION DEBBY | VT | EM | 2024-08-08 |
| 3608 | TROPICAL STORM DEBBY | NC | EM | 2024-08-06 |
| 3607 | HURRICANE DEBBY | GA | EM | 2024-08-05 |
| 3606 | HURRICANE DEBBY | SC | EM | 2024-08-05 |
| 3605 | TROPICAL STORM DEBBY | FL | EM | 2024-08-03 |
What this means for Tropical Storm declarations
Tropical Storm is declared more often than 62% of the other declaration types FEMA tracks, with 39 FEMA declaration records; Florida leads with 6.
- Florida accounts for the largest share of tropical storm declarations in this corpus. Florida profile
- See how states compare on raw FEMA declaration volume across all incident types. Most disasters ranking
- Learn what a FEMA declaration does and does not measure relative to NOAA storm events. Disaster-data guide
A federal declaration is a legal assistance trigger, not a count of every storm event or a forecast. For current threats follow the National Weather Service and local officials; in an emergency call 911.
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Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 For informational purposes only
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Verify declarations with FEMA → Verify storm-event context with NOAA →
Every figure on PlainHazard is rendered directly from FEMA federal disaster data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or national statistics report, the data & editorial changelog, or report a data error.