Falls Church city, Virginia: hazard history

FEMA declared 16 disasters that named Falls Church city between 1972 and 2026.

Most recent declarations

• EM-3631 2026 · Winter Storm · Severe Winter Storm
• DR-4512 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• EM-3448 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• EM-3403 2018 · Hurricane · Hurricane Florence
• DR-4262 2016 · Snowstorm · Severe Winter Storm And Snowstorm
• DR-4092 2012 · Hurricane · Hurricane Sandy
• EM-3359 2012 · Hurricane · Hurricane Sandy
• DR-4072 2012 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms And Straight-line Winds
• DR-1905 2010 · Snowstorm · Severe Winter Storms And Snowstorms
• DR-1874 2009 · Snowstorm · Severe Winter Storm And Snowstorm

Not counted above: 3 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Virginia. 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.

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.

NOAA storm event records in Falls Church city each year. The busiest year was 2000, with 29 records.

Years with no record are left out of the table, not shown as zero.

Costliest records

1. Tropical Storm · Sep 18, 2003$4.5M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 26 injuries · NOAA record 5335421
2. High Wind · Oct 29, 2012$4.5M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 417832
3. Flood · Sep 7, 1996$500K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5572183
4. Winter Storm · Feb 14, 2003$400K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5342895
5. Thunderstorm Wind · Aug 7, 2000$300K
   NOAA name: Falls Church city · NOAA record 5172668

Deadliest records

1. Lightning · Aug 7, 20001 death
   NOAA name: Falls Church city · NOAA record 5172670
2. Winter Weather · Dec 14, 20031 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5380138
3. Excessive Heat · Jun 8, 20081 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 105121

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.

The National Flood Insurance Program paid $467K on 70 claims in Falls Church city from 1978 to 2023.

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.

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.

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 Falls Church 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.

• 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 Falls Church 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 416 records, 52 were filed against this county and 364 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: 4% of Virginia'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.