⚙️ How-To Hurricanes & tropical cyclones Natural hazards & risk Notebook By · Updated

How to Count US Hurricane Landfalls by State and Category

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Problem statement

Which US states are hit by hurricanes most often, and how strong were the hurricanes when they came ashore? HURDAT2 marks every landfall with an L record that gives the time, position and intensity. But the records are not tagged with a country or state, a hurricane can make several landfalls, and many landfalls are in the Caribbean, Mexico or Canada. This page selects the hurricane-strength landfalls, assigns each to the nearest US state, counts them by state and category since 1851, and separates landfalls from landfalling hurricanes.

Quick answer

Take fixes with record == "L" and status == "HU". Join them to US state polygons with sjoin_nearest and a maximum distance, because landfall points sit on the coastline and the simplified boundaries do not always contain them. Classify the wind into Saffir–Simpson categories, then count by state, or keep each storm's first US landfall when counting hurricanes.

lower48 = states[~states.STUSPS.isin(["AK", "HI", "PR", "GU", "VI", "MP", "AS"])].to_crs(5070)
lf = hd[(hd.record == "L") & (hd.status == "HU")].copy()
pts = gpd.GeoDataFrame(lf, geometry=gpd.points_from_xy(lf.lon, lf.lat), crs=4326).to_crs(5070)
near = gpd.sjoin_nearest(pts, lower48[["STUSPS", "geometry"]], max_distance=50_000, distance_col="m")
near = near[~near.index.duplicated()]
print(f"hurricane landfall records: {len(lf):,}; within 50 km of the lower 48: {len(near):,} by {near.sid.nunique()} hurricanes")
hurricane landfall records: 620; within 50 km of the lower 48: 367 by 290 hurricanes

Of 620 hurricane landfall records since 1851, 367 lie within 50 km of the lower 48 states. They were made by 290 hurricanes.

Map of the eastern United States with coloured dots along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts for every hurricane landfall since 1851, densest around Florida, Louisiana and Texas, with category 4 and 5 dots mostly in Florida and on the Gulf coast. Map of the eastern United States with coloured dots along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts for every hurricane landfall since 1851, densest around Florida, Louisiana and Texas, with category 4 and 5 dots mostly in Florida and on the Gulf coast.
367 US hurricane landfall records, 1851–2025, by category at landfall.

From landfall records to state counts

1. Landfall records

L = hd[hd.record == "L"]
print(f"'L' records: {len(L):,}; by status: {L.status.value_counts().to_dict()}")
print(f"landfall fixes at a synoptic hour: {L.synoptic.mean():.1%}")
'L' records: 1,213; by status: {'HU': 620, 'TS': 535, 'TD': 43, 'EX': 7, 'SS': 7, 'SD': 1}
landfall fixes at a synoptic hour: 16.4%

There are 1,213 landfall records. 620 are at hurricane strength, 535 tropical storm, and the rest depressions, subtropical or extratropical systems. Only 16.4% fall exactly on a synoptic hour. Most landfall fixes are extra rows added at the time the centre crossed the coast.

2. Assign the state

print(f"distance to the nearest state, km: median {near.m.median() / 1000:.1f}, 90th percentile {near.m.quantile(0.9) / 1000:.1f}")
print(f"landfalls further than 50 km from any state (Caribbean, Mexico, Canada, Bahamas): {len(lf) - len(near):,}")
distance to the nearest state, km: median 0.0, 90th percentile 4.9
landfalls further than 50 km from any state (Caribbean, Mexico, Canada, Bahamas): 253

Half of the US landfall points fall inside a state polygon (median distance 0.0 km) and 90% within 4.9 km. The 50 km limit catches points on barrier islands and in bays without reaching across to the Bahamas or Cuba. 253 hurricane landfalls are further from any state: the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, Bermuda and Atlantic Canada.

3. Category at landfall

near["cat"] = pd.cut(near.wind, [63, 82, 95, 112, 136, 200], labels=[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]).astype(int)
t = pd.crosstab(near.STUSPS, near.cat, margins=True, margins_name="all").sort_values("all", ascending=False)
print(t.head(9).to_string())
cat       1    2   3   4  5  all
STUSPS                          
all     158  100  71  33  5  367
FL       49   37  27  15  4  132
TX       27   12  11   9  0   59
LA       21   13  16   5  0   55
NC       21   15   3   0  0   39
SC       16    6   1   3  0   26
AL        8    1   2   0  0   11
MS        4    3   3   0  1   11
NY        5    2   3   0  0   10

Florida has 132 hurricane landfall records, more than Texas (59) and Louisiana (55) together, and 4 of the 5 category-5 landfalls. North Carolina's 39 are mostly category 1 and 2 on the Outer Banks. New York's 10 are a reminder that the Northeast is not immune, including three at category 3.

Stacked horizontal bars of hurricane landfall records by state and category: Florida far longest at 132, then Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina, with smaller bars for Alabama, Mississippi, New York and New England states. Stacked horizontal bars of hurricane landfall records by state and category: Florida far longest at 132, then Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina, with smaller bars for Alabama, Mississippi, New York and New England states.
Landfall records by state and category. Florida's 132 are more than Texas's 59 and Louisiana's 55 together.

4. Hurricanes, not landfalls

per_storm = near.groupby("sid").size()
print(f"hurricanes with more than one US landfall record: {(per_storm > 1).sum()}; most: {per_storm.max()} "
      f"({hd.loc[hd.sid == per_storm.idxmax(), 'name'].iloc[0]} {per_storm.idxmax()[-4:]})")
first = near.sort_values("time").drop_duplicates("sid")
print(f"US landfalling hurricanes 1851-2025: {len(first)}; major (category 3+) at first landfall: {(first.cat >= 3).sum()}")
hurricanes with more than one US landfall record: 62; most: 5 (DONNA 1960)
US landfalling hurricanes 1851-2025: 290; major (category 3+) at first landfall: 91

62 hurricanes have more than one US landfall record. Donna in 1960 has five, crossing the Florida Keys and south-west Florida and then North Carolina, New York and New England. Counting each hurricane once at its first US landfall gives 290 landfalling hurricanes since 1851, 91 of them major (category 3 or higher) at first landfall.

Decades and the strongest landfalls

The data used on this page

The National Hurricane Center's HURDAT2 Atlantic best-track file, 1851–2025, and Census Bureau 2023 state boundaries.

from pathlib import Path

import geopandas as gpd
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import requests

Path("data").mkdir(exist_ok=True)
# NOAA National Hurricane Center HURDAT2 best tracks: Atlantic 1851-2025 (released 23 September 2026) and
# north-east and north-central Pacific 1949-2025 (29 September 2026). NHC keeps every release under its own name.
FILES = ["hurdat2-1851-2025-092326.txt", "hurdat2-nepac-1949-2025-092926.txt"]
for name in FILES:
    if not Path(f"data/{name}").exists():
        Path(f"data/{name}").write_bytes(requests.get(f"https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/hurdat/{name}", timeout=300).content)

COLS = ["date", "time", "record", "status", "lat", "lon", "wind", "pressure"] + \
       [f"r{kt}_{q}" for kt in (34, 50, 64) for q in ("ne", "se", "sw", "nw")] + ["rmw"]


def read_hurdat2(path):
    """One header line per storm (id, name, number of fixes), then one line per fix; -999 means missing."""
    rows = []
    for line in open(path):
        f = [x.strip() for x in line.split(",")]
        if f[0][:2].isalpha():
            sid, name = f[0], f[1]
            continue
        rows.append([sid, name] + f[:21])
    h = pd.DataFrame(rows, columns=["sid", "name"] + COLS)
    h["time"] = pd.to_datetime(h.date + h.time, format="%Y%m%d%H%M")
    h["lat"] = h.lat.str[:-1].astype(float) * np.where(h.lat.str[-1] == "S", -1, 1)
    h["lon"] = h.lon.str[:-1].astype(float) * np.where(h.lon.str[-1] == "W", -1, 1)
    for c in COLS[6:]:
        h[c] = pd.to_numeric(h[c]).replace(-999, np.nan)
    h["season"] = h.sid.str[-4:].astype(int)
    h["synoptic"] = h.time.dt.strftime("%H%M").isin(["0000", "0600", "1200", "1800"])
    return h.drop(columns="date")


hd = read_hurdat2("data/hurdat2-1851-2025-092326.txt")
if not Path("data/cb_2023_us_state_20m.zip").exists():
    Path("data/cb_2023_us_state_20m.zip").write_bytes(requests.get("https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/GENZ2023/shp/cb_2023_us_state_20m.zip", timeout=300).content)
states = gpd.read_file("data/cb_2023_us_state_20m.zip").to_crs(4326)
print(f"HURDAT2 Atlantic: {hd.sid.nunique():,} storms, {len(hd):,} fixes, {hd.season.min()}-{hd.season.max()}")
HURDAT2 Atlantic: 1,988 storms, 55,524 fixes, 1851-2025

Example 1: by decade

dec = first.groupby(first.season // 10 * 10).agg(hurricanes=("sid", "size"), major=("cat", lambda c: (c >= 3).sum()))
print(dec.T.to_string())
print(f"seasons since 1851 with no US hurricane landfall: {175 - first.season.nunique()}; 2025 had {(first.season == 2025).sum()}")
season      1850  1860  1870  1880  1890  1900  1910  1920  1930  1940  1950  1960  1970  1980  1990  2000  2010  2020
hurricanes    15    14    18    24    19    17    21    13    16    22    17    14     6    16    13    17    12    16
major          5     2     6     5     7     5     7     5     5     7     6     5     3     3     4     6     3     7
seasons since 1851 with no US hurricane landfall: 43; 2025 had 0

US hurricane landfalls show no long-term trend. Every decade from the 1850s to the 2020s has between 12 and 24 except the 1970s (6). The 2020s already have 16, 7 of them major. 43 seasons since 1851 had no US hurricane landfall, and 2025 was one of them: Melissa, the season's strongest storm, struck Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas.

Bar chart of US landfalling hurricanes per decade from the 1850s to the 2020s, mostly between 12 and 24 with a low of 6 in the 1970s, and a smaller red bar for major hurricanes in each decade. Bar chart of US landfalling hurricanes per decade from the 1850s to the 2020s, mostly between 12 and 24 with a low of 6 in the 1970s, and a smaller red bar for major hurricanes in each decade.
US landfalling hurricanes per decade show no long-term trend; the 1970s had only 6.

Example 2: the strongest landfalls

print(near.sort_values(["wind", "pressure"], ascending=[False, True])[["name", "time", "STUSPS", "wind", "pressure"]].head(6).to_string(index=False))
   name                time STUSPS  wind  pressure
UNNAMED 1935-09-03 02:00:00     FL   160     892.0
CAMILLE 1969-08-18 04:00:00     MS   150     900.0
 ANDREW 1992-08-24 09:05:00     FL   145     922.0
 ANDREW 1992-08-24 08:40:00     FL   145     926.0
MICHAEL 2018-10-10 17:30:00     FL   140     919.0
UNNAMED 1886-08-20 13:00:00     TX   130     925.0

The strongest US landfall in the record is the 1935 Labor Day hurricane in the Florida Keys, at 160 kt and 892 hPa. Camille (Mississippi, 1969) and Andrew (Florida, 1992) follow. Andrew appears twice, because its landfall on Elliott Key and on the mainland 25 minutes later are separate records. Deduplicate by storm when ranking hurricanes.

What counts as a landfall

NHC defines landfall as the moment the centre of the storm crosses a coastline. The strongest winds are often in the eyewall, tens of kilometres from the centre, so a hurricane can batter a coast without "making landfall" there. Hurricane Dorian in 2019 is the usual example: it stayed just offshore of most of the south-east US coast. Landfall counts are therefore a measure of direct hits, not of hurricane impacts.

The early landfall record is the most complete part of the 19th-century data. A hurricane coming ashore in a populated state was hard to miss, while storms at sea often went unrecorded. That is why US landfall counts are steady across the decades even though basin-wide counts rise.

Counting choices

  • Landfalls or hurricanes. State counts (a storm counts in every state it hits) and national counts (once per storm) answer different questions. Say which.
  • Intensity at landfall is the HURDAT2 wind at the landfall fix, which can differ slightly from the estimate in NHC's published landfall table.
  • Islands and keys. The 20m generalised boundaries drop small islands; a finer boundary file or a larger distance limit keeps the Keys and Outer Banks.
  • Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands are excluded here; add them to the polygon set if you count all US landfalls.

FAQ

Which US state has the most hurricane landfalls?

Florida, with 132 hurricane landfall records in HURDAT2 from 1851 to 2025, ahead of Texas (59) and Louisiana (55).

Did a hurricane make landfall in the US in 2025?

No. None of the 2025 season's hurricanes made landfall on the US mainland, one of 43 such seasons since 1851.