Charleston County, South Carolina: 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 Thunderstorm Wind, with 517 records.
- The costliest single record is Tropical Storm in 2004: $16.6M in property damage, in the dollars of that year.
- The deadliest record is Heat in 1999, with 6 deaths.
- FEMA has declared 27 disasters that named this county, most often for hurricane.
- The worst year for flood insurance claims was 1989, with 9,438 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 27 disasters that named Charleston County between 1977 and 2026.
| Incident type | Disasters | Most recent |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane | 16 | 2023 |
| Severe Storm | 3 | 2015 |
| Biological | 2 | 2020 |
| Tropical Storm | 2 | 2024 |
| Drought | 1 | 1977 |
| Flood | 1 | 2015 |
| Severe Ice Storm | 1 | 2014 |
| Winter Storm | 1 | 2026 |
Most recent declarations
- EM-3632 2026 · Winter Storm · Severe Winter Storm
- EM-3619 2024 · Tropical Storm · Hurricane Helene
- EM-3606 2024 · Tropical Storm · Hurricane Debby
- EM-3597 2023 · Hurricane · Hurricane Idalia
- EM-3585 2022 · Hurricane · Hurricane Ian
- DR-4677 2022 · Hurricane · Hurricane Ian
- DR-4492 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
- EM-3470 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
- DR-4464 2019 · Hurricane · Hurricane Dorian
- EM-3421 2019 · Hurricane · Hurricane Dorian
Not counted above: 3 statewide declarations, which covered every county in South Carolina. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 517 | 0 | 0 | $935K |
| Flash Flood | 301 | 1 | 3 | $20.2M |
| Coastal Flood | 284 | 0 | 0 | $395K |
| Hail | 273 | 0 | 0 | $41K |
| Tropical Storm | 68 | 0 | 2 | $16.8M |
| Strong Wind | 61 | 3 | 3 | $89K |
| Lightning | 47 | 2 | 11 | $1.3M |
| Tornado | 43 | 0 | 1 | $3.1M |
| Rip Current | 28 | 4 | 5 | $0 |
| High Wind | 27 | 0 | 0 | $23K |
| Drought | 20 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| High Surf | 20 | 1 | 0 | $204K |
| Heavy Snow | 19 | 0 | 0 | $73K |
| Storm Surge/Tide | 17 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Excessive Heat | 15 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Funnel Cloud | 10 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Flood | 9 | 0 | 0 | $23K |
| Heat | 9 | 7 | 5 | $0 |
| Heavy Rain | 7 | 1 | 0 | $11K |
| Hurricane (Typhoon) | 7 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Ice Storm | 7 | 0 | 0 | $160K |
| Tropical Depression | 7 | 0 | 0 | $8K |
| Winter Weather | 7 | 1 | 0 | $0 |
| Waterspout | 5 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Wildfire | 4 | 0 | 0 | $2.0M |
| Cold/Wind Chill | 2 | 1 | 0 | $0 |
| Extreme Cold/Wind Chill | 2 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Frost/Freeze | 2 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Winter Storm | 2 | 1 | 0 | $0 |
| Freezing Fog | 1 | 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.
Year by year
NOAA storm event records in Charleston County each year. The busiest year was 2015, with 154 records.
Show the numbers for every year
| Year | Records | Deaths | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 12 | 1 | $0 |
| 1997 | 18 | 0 | $240K |
| 1998 | 21 | 1 | $494K |
| 1999 | 19 | 6 | $0 |
| 2000 | 18 | 0 | $900K |
| 2001 | 14 | 1 | $0 |
| 2002 | 28 | 0 | $0 |
| 2003 | 15 | 0 | $0 |
| 2004 | 33 | 1 | $16.6M |
| 2005 | 33 | 1 | $0 |
| 2006 | 91 | 0 | $133K |
| 2007 | 41 | 1 | $44K |
| 2008 | 130 | 2 | $1.5M |
| 2009 | 118 | 0 | $504K |
| 2010 | 60 | 1 | $133K |
| 2011 | 69 | 0 | $2.4M |
| 2012 | 76 | 0 | $830K |
| 2013 | 97 | 0 | $265K |
| 2014 | 44 | 1 | $83K |
| 2015 | 154 | 1 | $19.9M |
| 2016 | 85 | 0 | $103K |
| 2017 | 50 | 0 | $483K |
| 2018 | 49 | 1 | $67K |
| 2019 | 73 | 1 | $28K |
| 2020 | 72 | 1 | $58K |
| 2021 | 59 | 0 | $75K |
| 2022 | 71 | 0 | $218K |
| 2023 | 74 | 1 | $45K |
| 2024 | 64 | 0 | $252K |
| 2025 | 125 | 0 | $33K |
| 2026 | 8 | 1 | $0 |
Years with no record are left out of the table, not shown as zero.
Notable events
Costliest records
- Tropical Storm · Aug 29, 2004$16.6MNOAA name: CHARLESTON · NOAA record 5422545
- Wildfire · Mar 23, 2011$2.0MNOAA name: CHARLESTON · NOAA record 294183
- Tornado · Sep 24, 2015$1.5MNOAA name: CHARLESTON · NOAA record 602300
- Tornado · May 11, 2008$1.2MNOAA name: CHARLESTON · NOAA record 107572
- Flash Flood · Aug 28, 2012$750KNOAA name: CHARLESTON · NOAA record 410738
Deadliest records
- Heat · Aug 1, 19996 deathsNOAA name: CHARLESTON · NOAA record 5711278
- Strong Wind · Apr 15, 20082 deathsNOAA name: CHARLESTON · $5K damage · 2 injuries · NOAA record 92980
- Cold/Wind Chill · Feb 3, 19961 deathNOAA name: CHARLESTON · NOAA record 5537678
- Heat · Jun 1, 19981 deathNOAA name: CHARLESTON · NOAA record 5650131
- Lightning · Sep 2, 20011 deathNOAA name: CHARLESTON · NOAA record 5268022
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 $308.0M on 19,194 claims in Charleston County from 1978 to 2024.
| Year | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 9,438 | $177.4M |
| 2015 | 2,111 | $27.9M |
| 2017 | 1,578 | $39.3M |
| 2016 | 1,462 | $33.8M |
| 1994 | 611 | $1.5M |
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 Charleston County
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 | 99 NCEI events over 31 years (3.19/yr). 18 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Tornado | 3 | 43 NCEI events over 31 years (1.39/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Severe Thunderstorm | 3 | 837 NCEI events over 31 years (27.00/yr). 3 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Flood, External | 3 | 601 NCEI events over 31 years (19.39/yr). 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county. |
| Snow Fall / Blizzard / Ice Storm | 3 | 36 NCEI events over 31 years (1.16/yr). 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county. |
| High Wind (non-convective) | 3 | 88 NCEI events over 31 years (2.84/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Temperature Extremes | 2 | 30 NCEI events over 31 years (0.97/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Drought | 2 | 20 NCEI events over 31 years (0.65/yr). 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county. |
| Wild Fire | 2 | 4 NCEI events over 31 years (0.13/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Epidemic | 2 | 2 federal disaster declarations naming 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 Charleston County — 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 by county and others by forecast zone, and names both. Records are counted as Charleston County when their NOAA name is this county's name, alone or with a word like “Coastal” or “Inland” in front. The county codes NOAA also publishes have not been loaded for South Carolina yet; when they are, this page will count by code instead, and some counties' records will grow. NOAA names counted here: CHARLESTON, Charleston. Zones named for something else, such as a mountain range or two counties at once, are left out: 3% of South Carolina's NOAA records.
- Counts last rebuilt from the source records on Sep 15, 2026.
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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.