Delaware tornadoes

Name: Tornadoes in Delaware, 1950-2025
Creator: NOAA Storm Prediction Center
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

Every recorded tornado since 1950 · 3 counties with a record

Delaware has recorded 77 tornadoes from 1950 through 2025, about 1.7 a year since 2000, with 2 rated F3/EF3 or stronger (NOAA Storm Prediction Center). The deadliest was the July 21, 1983 Hartly tornado (2 deaths in Delaware). Delaware ranks 46th of 52 states and territories by count and 14th of 51 per square mile.

Tornadoes in Delaware, 1950 to 2025

Tornadoes per year (SPC; a tornado that crossed a state line counts in each state it touched).

recorded, no damage figure
under $1 million
$1 million or more
$10 million or more
$100 million or more, or 10 deaths
$1 billion or more, or 100 deaths
a year's colour: its recorded damage or deaths
a year with a death
1996: tornado reports rose with NEXRAD Doppler radar, mid-1990s (SPC)

Tornadoes: 771950 to 2025
A year since 2000: 1.7average
Deaths: 376 injuries
F3/EF3 or stronger: 23% of tornadoes
Busiest year: 19926 tornadoes

Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025 (state segments). SPC severe weather database.

Are tornadoes common in Delaware?

Delaware averages about 1.7 tornadoes a year since 2000, 46th of 52 states and territories by count. The busiest year on record was 1992 (6). Per 10,000 square miles of land, Delaware records 395 tornadoes since 1950, 14th of 51 states and territories by that measure.

Source: NOAA SPC, tornadoes 1950-2025, 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 Delaware have the most tornadoes?

Per square mile, New Castle County leads Delaware: 26 days with a tornado record since 1950, 61.0 per 1,000 square miles of land. By raw count, New Castle County has the most tornado records (28 since 1950); 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).

New Castle County 61.0 (28)
Kent County 32.4 (25)
Sussex County 25.6 (28)

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, days with a record in the county since 1950 per 1,000 square miles of land (Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer); in brackets, the count of records.

When is tornado season in Delaware?

48% of its tornadoes since 1950 fell in July and August. The busiest month is July (22 tornadoes).

The values, month by month

Jan 1 · Feb 0 · Mar 4 · Apr 8 · May 5 · Jun 11 · Jul 22 · Aug 15 · Sep 7 · Oct 3 · Nov 1 · Dec 0 (records).

Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, state segments by the month they began, 1950-2025.

What were the deadliest tornadoes in Delaware?

Delaware: the tornadoes with the most deaths in the state, 1950-2025
Date	Counties	Rating	Path in state	Killed	Injured
1983-07-21	Hartly · Kent	F2	1 mi	2	9
2023-04-01	Ellendale · Sussex	EF3	14.3 mi	1	0

Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database (state segments: deaths and path inside Delaware), 1950-2025; counties are the first four the SPC lists for the segment. SPC severe weather database.

Where have the strongest tornadoes tracked in Delaware?

F2/EF2
F3/EF3
F4/EF4
F5/EF5
no end point filed

16 tornadoes rated 2 or higher drawn from start to end of the whole track (a track that crossed into Delaware from another state is drawn in full); 60 rated 0 or 1 are left off the map.

Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, start and end points of each track; county lines: Census Bureau cartographic boundaries (2017), via us-atlas. SPC severe weather database. Census cartographic boundary files.

The strongest tornadoes in Delaware

Delaware: the highest-rated tornadoes, 1950-2025
Date	Counties	Rating	Path in state	Width	Killed
2023-04-01	Ellendale · Sussex	EF3	14.3 mi	700 yd	1
1961-04-28	New Castle · New Castle	F3	0.3 mi	30 yd	0
1983-07-21	Hartly · Kent	F2	1 mi	20 yd	2
2020-08-04	Dover to Middletown · Kent, New Castle	EF2	35.78 mi	500 yd	0
1993-09-27	Delaware · New Castle	F2	10 mi	100 yd	0
2019-04-15	Laurel · Sussex	EF2	6.2 mi	400 yd	0
2004-09-28	Wilmington · New Castle	F2	5 mi	150 yd	0
1992-07-31	Frederica · Kent	F2	4 mi	20 yd	0
1955-08-12	Ocean View · Sussex	F2	2.7 mi	133 yd	0
1979-09-05	Bellefonte · New Castle	F2	2.5 mi	200 yd	0

Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database; F scale before February 1, 2007, EF scale after.

The longest tornado paths in Delaware

Delaware: the longest paths inside the state, 1950-2025
Date	Tornado and counties	Rating	Path in state	Width	Killed
2020-08-04	Dover to Middletown · Kent, New Castle	EF2	35.78 mi	500 yd	0
1988-06-07	New Castle, Kent	F1	23 mi	100 yd	0
1994-06-27	Kent	F1	15 mi	300 yd	0
2023-04-01	Ellendale · Sussex	EF3	14.3 mi	700 yd	1
1989-08-15	Sussex	F1	12.7 mi	20 yd	0
1957-07-05	Sussex	F1	11.3 mi	100 yd	0
1993-04-01	Kent	F0	10 mi	10 yd	0
1993-09-27	Delaware · New Castle	F2	10 mi	100 yd	0
1993-09-27	New Castle	F1	7 mi	50 yd	0
2019-04-15	Laurel · Sussex	EF2	6.2 mi	400 yd	0

Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, state segments: path length and width inside the state. SPC severe weather database.

Tornadoes in every Delaware county

All 3 counties: tornadoes whose track touched each, and the strongest

Delaware: tornadoes whose track touched each county since 1950, most first
County	Tornadoes	Strongest
New Castle County	28	F/EF3
Sussex County	28	F/EF3
Kent County	24	F/EF2

Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database: whole tornadoes whose track touched the county (any state segment listing it). SPC severe weather database.

Is Delaware in Tornado Alley?

Tornado Alley has no official boundary; the Storm Prediction Center calls it a media nickname for the central U.S. area of relatively high tornado occurrence. By the record, Delaware ranks 10th of 50 states for tornadoes rated 1 or higher per square mile since 1950 (262 per 10,000 square miles).

Tornado Alley, measured: the states by density and maps of where tornadoes began in two eras.

Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database and Online Tornado FAQ. SPC's tornado FAQ.

The costliest tornadoes in Delaware

Delaware: the most damaging tornadoes since 1993, 2025 dollars
Date	Record	Character	Injured	Damage
2004-09-28	TornadoWilmington Airport, New Castle County An F2 (on the Fujita scale) tornado touched down in northern New Castle County with maximum winds estimated at 130 mph. The path length was 5.0 miles long with a maximum path width of 150 yards. The tornado touched down near and was observed at the New Castle County Airport. The northern end of the tornado track was ...	F2 5 mi x 150 yd	0	$1.6M
1994-07-27	TornadoHarrington, Kent County Two sites along Route 13 had some wind damage. One was about 2 miles south of Felton where a warehouse lost its loading doors and sustained damage to some other doors. An empty trailer was blown off a rig which was driving south on Route 13. The second site was just west of Route 13 north of Felton where a mobile home ...	F1 1.5 mi x 100 yd	0	$796K
1994-07-27	TornadoFarmington, Kent County	F0 0.3 mi x 50 yd	4	$398K
2015-07-09	TornadoGarfield Park, New Castle County An EF-0 tornado occurred in eastern New Castle County in Minquadale (Brandywine Hundred). The tornado touched down near a trailer park off of New Castle Avenue. Eight units of the mobile home village and apartments on New Castle Avenue were damaged. A downed transformer went through one bedroom. Shingles and gutters ...	EF0 0.52 mi x 75 yd	0	$249K
2014-05-22	TornadoHaglettville, Kent County An EF1 tornado with an estimated maximum wind speed of 105 mph touched down in West Dover Hundred. It touched down just west of Darling Drive and lifted just east of Darling Farm Road. Two people were injured as the worst wind damage occurred on Darling Drive. A 58-year-old man and his wife were injured after the ...	EF1 0.35 mi x 50 yd	2	$187K
2012-09-03	TornadoWyoming, Kent County An EF0 tornado touched down in the Barclay Farms Subdivision in Camden with an estimated maximum wind speed of 85 mph. The tornado damaged approximately ten homes, six of them seriously and caused two injuries. Six homes were considered uninhabitable and gas lines were turned off in the development. The tornado ...	EF0 0.21 mi x 35 yd	2	$129K
1993-09-27	TornadoMount Pleasant, New Castle County	F2 10 mi x 100 yd	0	$112K
1993-09-27	TornadoSummit Bridge, New Castle County	F1 7 mi x 50 yd	0	$102K

Before 1993 NOAA filed damage by category, not amount, so the list above starts in 1993. The highest category filed here before then (entered as $2.5M, in the dollars of the day) holds: June 7, 1988 (tornado, Kent County); June 9, 1989 (tornado, New Castle County); June 7, 1988 (tornado, New Castle County).

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

Are tornadoes becoming more frequent in Delaware?

Delaware's count per decade against the whole country's, and its share. The Storm Prediction Center notes that tornado reports rose especially around the installation of the NEXRAD Doppler radar network in the mid-1990s, so a rising count is partly better detection; the share of the national total is the fairer comparison across decades.

Tornadoes: Delaware and the United States by decade
Decade	Delaware	United States	Delaware's share
1950s	5	4,837	0.10%
1960s	8	6,863	0.12%
1970s	13	8,633	0.15%
1980s	9	8,250	0.11%
1990s	20	12,205	0.16%
2000s	2	12,892	0.02%
2010s	8	12,232	0.07%
2020-25	12	8,234	0.15%

Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, state segments.

The most recent tornadoes in Delaware

The 12 most recent records, to June 30, 2026
Date	Record	Character	Killed	Damage
2026-03-16	TornadoFrederica, Kent County	EF1 0.7 mi x 75 yd	0	–
2025-06-30	TornadoFrankford, Sussex County	EF0 0.5 mi x 100 yd	0	–
2025-05-16	TornadoWoodland, Sussex County	EF1 4.3 mi x 600 yd	0	–
2024-08-08	TornadoStanton, New Castle County	EF1 1.13 mi x 150 yd	0	–
2023-09-11	TornadoDagsboro, Sussex County	EF0 0.7 mi x 370 yd	0	–
2023-07-09	TornadoMc Donough, New Castle County	EF1 1.19 mi x 200 yd	0	–
2023-04-01	TornadoDublin Hill, Sussex County	EF3 14.3 mi x 700 yd	1	–
2021-07-01	TornadoMilford Airport, Sussex County	EF1 4.7 mi x 100 yd	0	–
2021-07-01	TornadoFarmington, Kent County	EF1 3.85 mi x 50 yd	0	–
2020-08-07	TornadoAshland, New Castle County	EF1 4.17 mi x 450 yd	0	–
2020-08-04	TornadoWalker, New Castle County	EF2 20.89 mi x 500 yd	0	–
2020-08-04	TornadoMilford, Kent County	EF1 0.74 mi x 400 yd	0	–

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 tornadoes in Delaware

FEMA has declared 1 disaster in Delaware for tornadoes, counting its incident type and declarations that name tornado in the title (FEMA files most storm disasters under Severe Storm); one was a major disaster, the latest on November 15, 2004.

The 12 most recent
Declared	Number	Title	Areas named
2004-11-15	DR-1572	Severe Storms, Tornadoes, and Flooding From the Remnants of	1

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