Baltimore city, Maryland: hazard history
What federal records show has already happened here: disaster declarations, storms, and flood insurance claims. This is a record of the past. It is not a forecast and not a hazard score.
At a glance
What this means
- The event NOAA recorded most often here is Winter Weather, with 128 records.
- The costliest single record is Tropical Storm in 2003: $252.0M in property damage, in the dollars of that year.
- The deadliest record is Heat in 2002, with 17 deaths.
- FEMA has declared 22 disasters that named this county, most often for hurricane.
- The worst year for flood insurance claims was 1979, with 188 claims.
What this can't tell you
- What happens next. Past events do not set the odds of the next one.
- Anything before 1996 from NOAA. That is when NOAA began recording every event type; earlier files hold only tornado, hail and wind, so they are left out on purpose.
- Today's cost. Damage and payments are in the dollars of the year they happened.
- A flood rate. NFIP counts claims but not how many homes were insured, and many flooded homes carry no flood insurance.
- Earthquakes, wildfire perimeters or radar-detected hail. Those records are not tied to counties.
Federal disaster declarations (FEMA)
FEMA declared 22 disasters that named Baltimore city between 1971 and 2026.
| Incident type | Disasters | Most recent |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane | 6 | 2012 |
| Snowstorm | 6 | 2016 |
| Severe Storm | 4 | 2012 |
| Flood | 3 | 1975 |
| Biological | 2 | 2020 |
| Winter Storm | 1 | 2026 |
Most recent declarations
- EM-3634 2026 · Winter Storm · Severe Winter Storm
- EM-3430 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
- DR-4491 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
- DR-4261 2016 · Snowstorm · Severe Winter Storm And Snowstorm
- DR-4091 2012 · Hurricane · Hurricane Sandy
- EM-3349 2012 · Hurricane · Hurricane Sandy
- DR-4075 2012 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms And Straight-line Winds
- EM-3335 2011 · Hurricane · Hurricane Irene
- DR-4034 2011 · Hurricane · Hurricane Irene
- DR-1910 2010 · Snowstorm · Severe Winter Storms And Snowstorms
Not counted above: 1 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Maryland. A declaration is a decision to send federal help, not a measure of how bad an event was. Records run from 1953. Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries.
Storms recorded by NOAA, by type
| Event type | Records | Deaths | Injuries | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Weather | 128 | 3 | 18 | $0 |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 115 | 0 | 0 | $1.3M |
| Heat | 63 | 72 | 280 | $0 |
| Dense Fog | 58 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Flash Flood | 56 | 4 | 1 | $4.9M |
| Winter Storm | 48 | 0 | 1 | $1.5M |
| High Wind | 24 | 1 | 8 | $7.4M |
| Excessive Heat | 23 | 12 | 0 | $0 |
| Strong Wind | 23 | 0 | 0 | $452K |
| Coastal Flood | 18 | 0 | 0 | $45K |
| Hail | 18 | 0 | 0 | $5K |
| Heavy Rain | 18 | 1 | 1 | $0 |
| Frost/Freeze | 17 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Flood | 15 | 0 | 0 | $13K |
| Cold/Wind Chill | 10 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Drought | 9 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Heavy Snow | 7 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Tornado | 7 | 2 | 3 | $3.0M |
| Extreme Cold/Wind Chill | 6 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Ice Storm | 4 | 0 | 0 | $100K |
| Lightning | 4 | 2 | 1 | $30K |
| Blizzard | 3 | 1 | 0 | $0 |
| Tropical Storm | 3 | 0 | 0 | $252.6M |
| Funnel Cloud | 2 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Storm Surge/Tide | 2 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
Records start in 1996. Damage is NOAA's estimate at the time, in nominal dollars, and is often rounded; it is not insurance claims data. A storm that crossed two NOAA zones in this county is recorded, and counted, once per zone. A storm filed against a forecast zone is counted in every county that zone covers, with the whole storm's damage; do not add these figures across counties.
Year by year
NOAA storm event records in Baltimore city each year. The busiest year was 2012, with 54 records.
Show the numbers for every year
| Year | Records | Deaths | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 21 | 2 | $340K |
| 1997 | 10 | 1 | $60K |
| 1998 | 18 | 1 | $40K |
| 1999 | 25 | 15 | $710K |
| 2000 | 28 | 0 | $25K |
| 2001 | 19 | 4 | $45K |
| 2002 | 24 | 34 | $147K |
| 2003 | 29 | 4 | $254.0M |
| 2004 | 17 | 1 | $1.0M |
| 2005 | 17 | 1 | $310K |
| 2006 | 21 | 4 | $300K |
| 2007 | 18 | 0 | $13K |
| 2008 | 13 | 0 | $10K |
| 2009 | 12 | 0 | $0 |
| 2010 | 25 | 3 | $244K |
| 2011 | 40 | 1 | $218K |
| 2012 | 54 | 4 | $7.1M |
| 2013 | 18 | 2 | $0 |
| 2014 | 27 | 0 | $0 |
| 2015 | 21 | 1 | $5K |
| 2016 | 22 | 2 | $5K |
| 2017 | 11 | 0 | $0 |
| 2018 | 40 | 18 | $3.0M |
| 2019 | 24 | 0 | $0 |
| 2020 | 33 | 0 | $30K |
| 2021 | 25 | 0 | $548K |
| 2022 | 15 | 0 | $86K |
| 2023 | 13 | 0 | $23K |
| 2024 | 19 | 0 | $2.5M |
| 2025 | 15 | 0 | $510K |
| 2026 | 7 | 0 | $0 |
Years with no record are left out of the table, not shown as zero.
Notable events
Costliest records
- Tropical Storm · Sep 18, 2003$252.0MNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5335405
- High Wind · Oct 29, 2012$7.1MNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 2 injuries · NOAA record 417691
- Flash Flood · May 27, 2018$3.0MNOAA name: Baltimore city · NOAA record 760921
- Tornado · Jun 5, 2024$2.0MNOAA name: Baltimore city · NOAA record 1174102
- Winter Storm · Feb 14, 2003$1.5MNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 1 injury · NOAA record 5344133
Deadliest records
- Heat · Jul 2, 200217 deathsNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5308354
- Heat · Jul 4, 199915 deathsNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 200 injuries · NOAA record 5710710
- Excessive Heat · Jul 3, 20188 deathsNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 772286
- Heat · Aug 1, 20025 deathsNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5313966
- Flash Flood · Nov 19, 20034 deathsNOAA name: Baltimore city · NOAA record 5331874
Each line is one NOAA record, linked to its page at NOAA. One large storm can appear more than once if NOAA recorded it in several zones of this county. Dollars are nominal.
Flood insurance claims (NFIP)
The National Flood Insurance Program paid $26.8M on 1,051 claims in Baltimore city from 1978 to 2024.
| Year | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| 1979 | 188 | $2.6M |
| 2003 | 153 | $7.9M |
| 2018 | 80 | $1.3M |
| 1984 | 68 | $1.1M |
| 1981 | 63 | $253K |
A count of claims, not a rate: NFIP publishes no count of insured homes beside it, and most flood damage is uninsured. Nominal dollars. Records run from 1978 to 2024; claims filed without a county code are not on any county page. Source: FEMA OpenFEMA FIMA NFIP Redacted Claims.
Hazard vulnerability analysis: the probability column for a facility in Baltimore city
A hazard vulnerability analysis rates each hazard for probability, impact, preparedness and response. Probability is the one column the county’s federal record can fill — NCEI storm events from 1996 to 2026 and FEMA declarations naming the county — and this is what it says for a facility here, on the 0–3 scale of the all-hazards structure surveyors expect. The other six columns are the facility’s own judgment about its building, and Calchis leaves them blank.
| Hazard | Prob. | Basis, from the county record |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane / Tropical Storm | 3 | 5 NCEI events over 31 years (0.16/yr). 6 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Severe Thunderstorm | 3 | 137 NCEI events over 31 years (4.42/yr). 4 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Flood, External | 3 | 107 NCEI events over 31 years (3.45/yr). 3 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Snow Fall / Blizzard / Ice Storm | 3 | 190 NCEI events over 31 years (6.13/yr). 6 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Temperature Extremes | 3 | 119 NCEI events over 31 years (3.84/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| High Wind (non-convective) | 3 | 47 NCEI events over 31 years (1.52/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Tornado | 2 | 7 NCEI events over 31 years (0.23/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Drought | 2 | 9 NCEI events over 31 years (0.29/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Epidemic | 2 | 2 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Wild Fire | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Earthquake | 1 | No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Landslide | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Tidal Wave / Tsunami | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Volcano | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Dam Inundation | 1 | No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
A dash means the record does not speak to that hazard; it is not a zero. Whether a finished document satisfies the CMS Emergency Preparedness Rule is the facility’s finding and its surveyor’s. Complete the HVA for a facility in Baltimore city — the technological, human and hazardous-materials rows, the six facility columns, the approval and the printed document — or read the sample analysis on that page first.
How this page was made
- Every figure is counted from public federal records held by Calchis: NOAA NCEI Storm Events, FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations, and FEMA NFIP claims. Nothing is modeled or estimated.
- NOAA files some events against a county and others against an NWS forecast zone, and publishes a code for both. Records are counted as Baltimore city by that code — county records by the county's own FIPS code, zone records through the National Weather Service's published list of which counties each zone covers. No name matching is involved. Of 681 records, 229 were filed against this county and 452 against a forecast zone covering it. A zone storm is counted in every county its zone covers, and its damage figure is the whole storm's, not this county's share — NOAA does not publish that split. So these figures describe this county; they must not be added up across counties. Left out: 6% of Maryland's NOAA records, which are marine zones or zones NWS does not map to a county.
- Counts last rebuilt from the source records on Sep 15, 2026.
- This county's NOAA record is short (under 100 records, under 10 with damage, or under 10 years), so this page is not offered to search engines. It is still accurate.
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Recorded history from federal public records. Not a hazard score, a risk score, or a forecast, and not a substitute for professional actuarial or emergency-management assessment. Decision-support intelligence — not a primary alerting or dispatch system. Verify against official sources.