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Storm hazard · NOAA Storm Events Database

Tsunami in the United States

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

20
Events recorded
0
Fatalities
$10.5M
Property damage
6
States affected

The verdict

NOAA ranks tsunami #53 of 54 by event count, yet its combined-damage rank is higher at #32. The <0.1% event share therefore understates its relative loss position in the 2015-2025 catalog.

#53 of 54
NOAA hazard types, by event count
<0.1%
share of all NOAA storm events, 2015-2025
20
tsunami events, 6 states 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 Tsunami events in the U.S.?

The loss ranking is the stronger warning against reading frequency alone. Tsunami is #53 of 54 by event count but rises to #32 for combined property and crop damage. Its losses make up <0.1% of the catalog total, while its fatalities rank #54 and represent 0% of recorded deaths. Fewer events can still produce an outsized financial record.

The annual record is uneven rather than steadily rising or falling. The peak year on record was 2025, logging 10 events and $1.0M in property damage in a single calendar year. The most recent year in the dataset is 2025 with 10 events recorded. Across the full 3-year window, annual event counts reflect natural year-to-year noise given how infrequently this hazard is recorded at all.

NOAA records too few tsunami events (20 events) to express a stable per-event fatality rate; a single incident would swing it by a wide margin. The cumulative record stands at 0 fatalities and 0 injuries, and recorded damage averages $526.0K per event. Read those as counts, not as a rate.

Where this hazard actually strikes varies sharply by region. The three states absorbing the largest share of events are California (8 events, 0 fatalities), American Samoa (6 events, 0 fatalities), Oregon (2 events, 0 fatalities), a pattern driven more by climatology than by any one state's vulnerability. At the other end, states such as Alaska, Washington, Hawaii report far fewer events, often reflecting hazard climatology rather than underreporting.

The cumulative NOAA record has a smaller reported human toll than most hazard types on this measure: 0 fatalities and 0 injuries among 20 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.

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.

Tsunami by State

Download all 9 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 95% of all 20 recorded events.

# State EventsFatalitiesProperty Damage
1 California CA 8 0 $10.5M
2 American Samoa AS 6 0 $0
3 Oregon OR 2 0 $0
4 Alaska AK 2 0 $0
5 Washington WA 1 0 $0
6 Hawaii HI 1 0 $20.0K

Tsunami by Year

Year EventsFatalitiesProperty Damage
2025 10 0 $1.0M
2022 9 0 $9.5M
2015 1 0 $0

Counties with the highest modeled tsunami risk

The state table above is NOAA's record of what has already happened. FEMA's National Risk Index asks a different question: where the expected annual loss from tsunami is highest, county by county, modelling exposure and vulnerability rather than counting past events. FEMA's rating varies across this list, so each county carries its own. These are modeled estimates, not forecasts, and a county absent from this list is not a county without risk.

Federal Disaster Declarations for Tsunami

Beyond the NOAA event record above, FEMA has issued 3 major disaster declarations classified as tsunami across 3 states (2011). A federal declaration is a legal act unlocking disaster assistance; one declaration can span many individual storm events, and most recorded events never lead to one, so the two counts measure different things. See the full tsunami declaration record →

What this record shows for Tsunami

Tsunami ranks #53 of 54 NOAA hazard types by event count; California leads the geography table with 8 events, and 2025 is the peak year at 10 events.

  • California carries the largest share of recorded tsunami events in this catalog. California profile
  • Compare how often this hazard appears against other NOAA event types nationally. All hazards
  • NOAA's tsunami event extract has a same-name FEMA incident type - 3 major declarations across 3 states. Declarations unlock assistance; they are not a count of storm events. Tsunami federal declaration record

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.

Further reading for Tsunami

Tsunami federal declaration record

NOAA's tsunami event extract has a same-name FEMA incident type - 3 major declarations across 3 states. Declarations unlock assistance; they are not a count of storm events.
More PlainHazard guides

Frequently Asked Questions

Which states record the most tsunami events?
California records the most tsunami events of any state, and the five most-affected states together account for 95% of all 20 recorded events nationwide.
How much damage do tsunami events cause?
Tsunami events have caused an estimated $10.5M in combined property and crop damage from 2015 to 2025: $10.5M in property damage and $0 in crop damage.
What year had the most tsunami events?
The year with the most recorded tsunami events was 2025, with 10 events resulting in 0 fatalities and $1.0M in property damage.
How dangerous are tsunami events?
PlainHazard places tsunami in its low human-toll band, based on 0 fatalities and 0 injuries in NOAA's 2015-2025 record across 6 states. This is a descriptive grouping for comparing cumulative records, not an official NOAA safety rating or a forecast for any individual event.
Which states have the fewest tsunami events?
The states with the fewest tsunami events include Alaska (2 events), Washington (1 events), Hawaii (1 events).

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

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

Related

Browse all → | Rankings →

Verify with NOAA → · Verify with FEMA →

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.