Alaska hurricanes and tropical storms

Are hurricane and tropical storm records common in Alaska?

Alaska averages about 4.2 hurricane and tropical storm records a year since 2000, 20th of 34 states and territories by count. The busiest year on record was 2003 (17). Per 10,000 square miles of land, Alaska records 0.9 hurricane and tropical storm records since 1996, 28th of 33 states and territories by that measure.

1. 1. New Jersey 537
2. 2. Puerto Rico 520
3. 3. Florida 419
4. 4. Georgia 409
5. 5. Delaware 334
6. 6. Rhode Island 280
7. 7. Louisiana 277
8. 8. North Carolina 232
9. 9. South Carolina 178
10. 10. Massachusetts 177
11. 28. Alaska 0.9

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, records since 1996, per 10,000 square miles of land area (Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer; places under 1,000 square miles not ranked). Damage colours: Storm Events damage, 2025 dollars.

Which counties in Alaska have the most hurricane and tropical storm records?

Per square mile, Anchorage Municipality leads Alaska: 1 days with a hurricane or tropical storm record since 1996, 0.6 per 1,000 square miles of land. By raw count, Nome Census Area has the most tropical records (18 since 1996); large counties collect more records simply by covering more ground, so the ranking counts days with a record per unit of area (a storm filed for several forecast zones adds several records but one day).

1. Anchorage Municipality 0.6 (1)
2. Kusilvak Census Area 0.5 (11)
3. Aleutians West Census Area 0.5 (2)
4. Kodiak Island Borough 0.4 (3)
5. Nome Census Area 0.4 (18)
6. Dillingham Census Area 0.3 (5)
7. Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area 0.2 (1)
8. Bethel Census Area 0.1 (7)
9. Kenai Peninsula Borough 0.1 (2)
10. Northwest Arctic Borough 0.1 (4)
11. Lake and Peninsula Borough 0.1 (2)
12. North Slope Borough 0.1 (8)

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, days with a record in the county since 1996 per 1,000 square miles of land (Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer); in brackets, the count of records.

When is hurricane season in Alaska?

52% of its hurricane and tropical storm records since 1996 fell in October and November. The busiest month is October (14 records).

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, records by the month they began, since 1996.

The costliest hurricane and tropical storm records in Alaska

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database: property and crop damage as estimated by the National Weather Service, in 2025 dollars.

Are hurricane and tropical storm records becoming more frequent in Alaska?

Alaska's count per decade against the whole country's, and its share. NOAA recorded every event type only from 1996, so earlier decades are not comparable; the share of the national total is the fairer comparison across decades.

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database.

The most recent hurricane and tropical storm records in Alaska

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, records through June 30, 2026; the newest months are revised by NCEI as reports arrive. Search the record at NCEI.

Federal disaster declarations for hurricane and tropical storm records in Alaska

FEMA has declared 4 disasters in Alaska for hurricane and tropical storm, counting its incident type and declarations that name hurricane or tropical storm or typhoon in the title (FEMA files most storm disasters under Severe Storm); 4 were major disasters, the latest on May 29, 2026.

Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries (v2), through October 2, 2026. OpenFEMA dataset page.

Next

• Anchorage Municipality: the county's whole recordThe Alaska county with the most hurricane and tropical storm records per square mile
• Hurricanes and tropical storms across the United StatesEvery state ranked, by year and month
• Every natural hazard in AlaskaTornadoes, floods, storms, heat and the federal declarations
• Winter storms in Alaska4,435 records
• High wind and dust storms in Alaska3,842 records
• Floods in Alaska648 records