Storm hazard · NOAA Storm Events Database

Marine High Wind in the United States

Q: Which states and marine areas record the most marine high wind events?

LAKE SUPERIOR records the most marine high wind events of any state or marine area, and the five most-affected states and marine areas together account for 97% of all 700 recorded events nationwide.

Q: How much damage do marine high wind events cause?

Marine High Wind events have caused an estimated $303.0K in combined property and crop damage from 2015 to 2025: $303.0K in property damage and $0 in crop damage.

Q: What year had the most marine high wind events?

The year with the most recorded marine high wind events was 2022, with 105 events resulting in 0 fatalities and $0 in property damage.

Q: How dangerous are marine high wind events?

PlainHazard places marine high wind in its low human-toll band, based on 1 fatality and 1 injury in NOAA's 2015-2025 record across 10 states and marine areas. This is a descriptive grouping for comparing cumulative records, not an official NOAA safety rating or a forecast for any individual event.

Q: Which states and marine areas have the fewest marine high wind events?

The states and marine areas with the fewest marine high wind events include LAKE HURON (3 events), E PACIFIC (2 events), HAWAII WATERS (1 events).

National statistics for marine high wind events from the NOAA Storm Events Database (2015-2025): how often they occur, where they hit hardest, and the human and property toll.

Compiled by PlainHazard Editorial, Independent hazard-data publisher · August 3, 2026

700
Events recorded: 1
Fatalities: $303.0K
Property damage: 10
Areas affected

The verdict

NOAA records marine high wind more prominently by frequency than by loss: #33 of 54 for event count versus #41 for combined damage. Its 0.1% event share and <0.1% damage share describe different parts of the record.

#33 of 54
NOAA hazard types, by event count: 0.1%
share of all NOAA storm events, 2015-2025: 700
marine high wind events, 10 states and marine areas affected

Ranking reflects NOAA Storm Events Database event counts, not fatalities, injuries, or damage severity; a rare hazard type can still be individually catastrophic.

How dangerous are Marine High Wind events in the U.S.?

Where this hazard actually strikes varies sharply by region. The three states and marine areas absorbing the largest share of events are LAKE SUPERIOR (370 events, 0 fatalities), ATLANTIC NORTH (165 events, 0 fatalities), LAKE MICHIGAN (93 events, 0 fatalities), a pattern driven more by climatology than by any one state's vulnerability. At the other end, states and marine areas such as LAKE HURON, E PACIFIC, HAWAII WATERS report far fewer events, often reflecting hazard climatology rather than underreporting.

This is a more frequency-heavy than loss-heavy record. The hazard ranks #33 by event count but #41 for combined property and crop damage, a gap of 8 places. Its listed losses represent <0.1% of the catalog total. The human-toll rank is #43, or <0.1% of recorded fatalities, so neither event count nor damage rank substitutes for the other.

The cumulative NOAA record has a smaller reported human toll than most hazard types on this measure: 1 fatality and 1 injury among 700 events. PlainHazard's low human-toll band means fewer than five recorded fatalities during 2015-2025. It does not mean that an individual event is harmless, or that unrecorded impacts are zero.

The annual record is uneven rather than steadily rising or falling. The peak year on record was 2022, logging 105 events and $0 in property damage in a single calendar year. The most recent year in the dataset is 2025 with 83 events recorded. Across the full 11-year window, annual event counts reflect natural year-to-year noise given how infrequently this hazard is recorded at all.

Frequency and per-event lethality sit close together for this hazard: #33 by event count and #37 by fatalities per event among the 44 types with at least 100 recorded events, at 1.4 deaths per 1,000 recorded events. Recorded damage averages $433 per event. Neither the cumulative total nor the rate is misleading here -- they tell the same story.

NOAA entries are reports filed by local National Weather Service offices. Counts therefore reflect both observed weather and reporting practice; they do not measure unreported events, household exposure, or the probability of a future event at one address.

Marine High Wind by State and Marine Area

Download all 57 state-year rows as CSV . Source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.

This is one of the most geographically concentrated hazards in the NOAA catalog: the five most-affected states absorb 97% of all 700 recorded events.

#	State or Marine Area	Events	Fatalities	Injuries	Property Damage
1	LAKE SUPERIOR	370	0	0	$0
2	ATLANTIC NORTH	165	0	0	$3.0K
3	LAKE MICHIGAN	93	0	0	$100.0K
4	LAKE ERIE	28	0	0	$0
5	GULF OF MEXICO	21	0	0	$160.0K
6	ATLANTIC SOUTH	11	0	0	$40.0K
7	GULF OF ALASKA	6	0	0	$0
8	LAKE HURON	3	0	0	$0
9	E PACIFIC	2	0	0	$0
10	HAWAII WATERS	1	1	1	$0

Marine High Wind by Year

Recorded marine high wind events averaged 47 per year across 2015-2019 versus 77 per year across 2020-2025: a 64% higher recorded rate in the later window. Reporting intensity varies by forecast office, so window-to-window comparisons describe the record, not a verified physical trend.

Year	Events	Fatalities	Injuries	Property Damage
2025	83	0	0	$0
2024	64	0	0	$0
2023	52	0	0	$100.0K
2022	105	0	0	$0
2021	77	0	0	$100.0K
2020	82	0	0	$2.0K
2019	77	0	0	$100.0K
2018	26	0	0	$1.0K
2017	59	0	0	$0
2016	51	0	0	$0
2015	24	1	1	$0

What this record shows for Marine High Wind

Marine High Wind ranks #33 of 54 NOAA hazard types by event count; LAKE SUPERIOR leads the geography table with 370 events, and 2022 is the peak year at 105 events.

Compare how often this hazard appears against other NOAA event types nationally. All hazards
Marine High Wind events concentrate unevenly - the five most-affected states and marine areas already account for a large share of the national marine high wind record in this extract. Hazard risk by region

NOAA Storm Events counts reflect filed reports, not a forecast or household-level probability. For current threats follow the National Weather Service and local officials; in an emergency call 911.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which states and marine areas record the most marine high wind events?

LAKE SUPERIOR records the most marine high wind events of any state or marine area, and the five most-affected states and marine areas together account for 97% of all 700 recorded events nationwide.

How much damage do marine high wind events cause?

Marine High Wind events have caused an estimated $303.0K in combined property and crop damage from 2015 to 2025: $303.0K in property damage and $0 in crop damage.

What year had the most marine high wind events?

The year with the most recorded marine high wind events was 2022, with 105 events resulting in 0 fatalities and $0 in property damage.

How dangerous are marine high wind events?

PlainHazard places marine high wind in its low human-toll band, based on 1 fatality and 1 injury in NOAA's 2015-2025 record across 10 states and marine areas. This is a descriptive grouping for comparing cumulative records, not an official NOAA safety rating or a forecast for any individual event.

Which states and marine areas have the fewest marine high wind events?

The states and marine areas with the fewest marine high wind events include LAKE HURON (3 events), E PACIFIC (2 events), HAWAII WATERS (1 events).

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database (2015-2025) NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database (2015-2025) For informational purposes only

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

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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.