Florida Hurricane History: 29 Storms Since 1970, Ranked by the Rain They Actually Dropped
We pulled the NOAA gauge readings for 29 major Florida landfalls since 1970 and ranked them by rainfall. The order comes out almost backwards from the wind scale — the state's two Category 5 hurricanes are the last two on the list.
Rank Florida's 29 biggest tropical landfalls since 1970 by the rain they actually dropped and the list comes out almost inside-out from the wind scale. We pulled the gauge totals from our NOAA archive for all 29 — 25 of which were hurricanes at landfall. Hurricane Irma tops it at 22.47 inches at Fort Pierce in 2017, a slow two-day crawl up the peninsula.
Then the ranking stops tracking wind entirely. Florida's only two Category 5 landfalls in the modern record — Andrew in 1992 and Michael in 2018 — are the last two storms on the board, at 3.78 and 3.29 inches. Category 4 Charley, which erased Punta Gorda in 2004, left barely seven. And a storm that was never a hurricane at all, Tropical Storm Fay, ranks fourth.
The reason is simple and worth internalizing before the next storm: the Saffir-Simpson category measures sustained wind, and wind is what destroys buildings. Rain — the thing that actually floods your house — depends on how slowly a storm moves and how much moisture it wraps in. A fast, compact Cat 5 can pass over dry and a stalled tropical storm can drown a county. Florida's record proves it out storm by storm.
The Category 5 paradox: Florida's two strongest hurricanes were its two driest
Only two hurricanes have ever made a Category 5 landfall in Florida: Andrew near Homestead on August 24, 1992, and Michael at Mexico Beach on October 10, 2018 — the first Cat 5 ever recorded striking the Florida Panhandle. Between them they leveled entire towns. And in this rainfall ranking they finish 28th and 29th out of 29.
Andrew was a small, fast, dry-slotted storm; our wettest Keys gauge at Tavernier caught 3.78 inches. Michael was moving so fast at landfall — and reorganized so quickly inland — that it carried its worst rain out of the state entirely, dropping the heaviest totals in Georgia and the Carolinas. Our Tallahassee gauge logged just 3.29 inches. If you had judged either storm by rainfall alone, you'd have badly underestimated it. That is exactly the trap the wind scale sets.
Every major Florida landfall since 1970, ranked by rainfall
Storm-total rainfall at the wettest reporting station in Florida during each storm's landfall window, computed from our NOAA GHCN-Daily archive. Intensity is the Saffir-Simpson category at the Florida landfall (or closest approach), per the NHC. Rows shaded amber are the ones where wind and rain diverge most sharply.
| # | Storm | Year | At FL landfall | Wettest gauge | Storm total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Irma | 2017 | Category 4 | Fort Pierce | 22.47" |
| 2 | Ian | 2022 | Category 5 | Daytona Beach | 21.49" |
| 3 | Katrina | 2005 | Category 1 | Key West NAS | 20.98" |
| 4 | Fay (not a hurricane) | 2008 | Tropical storm | Melbourne | 19.08" |
| 5 | Helene | 2024 | Category 4 | Apalachicola | 19.08" |
| 6 | Sally | 2020 | Category 2 | Pensacola | 16.39" |
| 7 | Opal | 1995 | Category 3 | Milton | 15.52" |
| 8 | Milton | 2024 | Category 3 | Mount Plymouth | 15.23" |
| 9 | Irene | 1999 | Category 1 | Miami | 14.33" |
| 10 | Frances | 2004 | Category 2 | West Palm Beach | 14.24" |
| 11 | Debby | 2024 | Category 1 | Bradenton | 13.65" |
| 12 | Georges | 1998 | Category 2 | Milton | 12.00" |
| 13 | Eta (not a hurricane) | 2020 | Tropical storm | North Miami Beach | 11.96" |
| 14 | Hermine | 2016 | Category 1 | Cross City | 11.76" |
| 15 | Matthew (not a hurricane) | 2016 | Cat 3 offshore (no FL landfall) | Federal Point | 10.16" |
| 16 | Wilma | 2005 | Category 3 | Titusville | 9.71" |
| 17 | Jeanne | 2004 | Category 3 | West Palm Beach | 9.28" |
| 18 | Dennis | 2005 | Category 3 | Bristol | 8.70" |
| 19 | Agnes | 1972 | Category 1 | Okeechobee | 8.41" |
| 20 | Kate | 1985 | Category 2 | Panama City | 8.32" |
| 21 | Idalia | 2023 | Category 3 | Wauchula | 8.10" |
| 22 | Ivan | 2004 | Category 3 | Niceville | 8.00" |
| 23 | David | 1979 | Category 2 | Melbourne | 7.31" |
| 24 | Charley | 2004 | Category 4 | Sanford | 7.07" |
| 25 | Elsa (not a hurricane) | 2021 | Tropical storm | Punta Gorda | 6.63" |
| 26 | Eloise | 1975 | Category 3 | Whiting Field NAS | 5.74" |
| 27 | Nicole | 2022 | Category 1 | Saint Leo | 5.72" |
| 28 | Andrew | 1992 | Category 5 | Tavernier | 3.78" |
| 29 | Michael | 2018 | Category 5 | Tallahassee | 3.29" |
Computed from NOAA GHCN-Daily station records, 1970–2026, with QC-flagged readings excluded. Totals are wettest-single-station calendar-day sums over each storm's window, not statewide maxima. You can pull the same numbers for any date and any city on our historical weather lookup.
What the rankings actually tell you
#1 · Irma (2017)
Category 4 · 22.47"Came ashore at Cudjoe Key as a Cat 4, then dragged the length of the peninsula for two days. A slow, statewide soaker — the wettest storm in this ranking.
#4 · Fay (2008)
Tropical storm · 19.08"Never a hurricane, and it made FOUR Florida landfalls — the only storm to do so. Our Melbourne gauge logged 19.08"; the true state maximum was 27.65" just northwest of the city.
#24 · Charley (2004)
Category 4 · 7.07"A 150-mph Category 4 that flattened Punta Gorda — and left barely seven inches of rain. Small, fast and violent: the purest example of wind without water in this table.
#28 · Andrew (1992)
Category 5 · 3.78"One of only two Category 5s ever to strike Florida — and it left under four inches of rain. Compact, fast and dry-slotted, Andrew was a pure wind machine that erased Homestead.
#29 · Michael (2018)
Category 5 · 3.29"The other Florida Cat 5 — and the driest storm on this list. Michael raced inland at 160 mph and carried its heaviest rain into Georgia and the Carolinas, not Florida.
The one thing the wettest storms have in common
Look at the top of the table and a pattern jumps out: the rainmakers all moved slowly. Irma spent nearly two days over the peninsula. Ian crawled inland at about 9 mph. Fay stalled so completely it made four separate landfalls. Slow storms have time to wring themselves out over one place.
The bottom of the table is the mirror image. Andrew, Michael, Wilma and Charley were all fast-moving — Wilma crossed the entire southern peninsula in under five hours. They hit hard and left before the rain could accumulate. This is why forecasters watch a storm's forward speed as closely as its category: a Cat 1 that stops is a bigger flood threat than a Cat 4 that sprints. When the next system threatens Florida, use our 2026 hurricane season tracker and the historical hurricane database to see how comparable storms behaved.
Dig deeper into the data
Florida leads the country in hurricane landfalls; its Gulf neighbor Texas ranks second, and its rainfall list is just as counterintuitive. For the broader national picture, see the deadliest hurricanes in US history, the worst October hurricanes (the month Michael and Milton struck), and the worst hurricanes to hit Hawaii. You can also pull every all-time extreme in the state on our Florida weather records page, or look up the daily rainfall for Miami, Tampa and Orlando during any of these storms.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many hurricanes have hit Florida?
Florida is struck by hurricanes more often than any other US state, according to NOAA landfall records going back to 1851. This ranking covers 29 major named systems since 1970; all but four of them — Fay, Eta, Elsa and Matthew, which were tropical storms or stayed just offshore — came ashore at hurricane strength.
What was the worst hurricane to hit Florida?
It depends on the measure. By wind and destruction, Hurricane Andrew (Category 5, 1992) and Hurricane Michael (Category 5, 2018) are the two most violent Florida landfalls on record. By rainfall, Hurricane Irma (2017) tops our ranking with 22.47 inches at Fort Pierce, and by cost, Hurricane Ian (2022) caused roughly $113 billion in damage.
Does a higher hurricane category mean more rain in Florida?
No — in Florida the relationship is almost backwards. In our ranking of 29 storms since 1970, the state’s two Category 5 landfalls, Andrew (3.78 inches) and Michael (3.29 inches), produced the least rain of all, while Tropical Storm Fay (2008), which was never a hurricane, ranks fourth. The Saffir-Simpson scale rates sustained wind, not rainfall. How slowly a storm moves matters far more for flooding.
When is hurricane season in Florida?
The Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30, and Florida is vulnerable the entire time. September is the peak month, but the storms in this ranking span June (Agnes) through late November (Kate on November 21, 1985), and two of the most damaging — Nicole and Eta — came ashore in November.
What is the rainiest tropical storm in Florida history?
Tropical Storm Fay in August 2008. It made an unprecedented four Florida landfalls and stalled over the east-central coast, dropping a state-record 27.65 inches of rain about eight miles northwest of Melbourne and breaking a 50-year-old 24-hour rainfall record in the city. Our official Melbourne gauge recorded 19.08 inches inside the storm window.
Sources & Method
Rainfall totals were computed for this article from NOAA GHCN-Daily station records in our database (1970–present). For each storm we summed daily precipitation across a landfall window at every Florida reporting station, excluded readings flagged in NOAA's quality-control file, and took the wettest single station. As a check, our Daytona Beach total for Ian (21.49") matches the published NWS central-Florida totals. These are calendar-day co-op gauge sums, not a storm's absolute maximum: Tropical Storm Fay's true Florida maximum was 27.65" northwest of Melbourne (NWS Melbourne); our official Melbourne gauge caught 19.08".
Florida is struck by hurricanes more often than any other US state, per NOAA's landfall record going back to 1851. Landfall dates and intensities are from the NHC Tropical Cyclone Reports. Category verifications used this run include NOAA's Category 5 upgrade for Michael, the NHC Tropical Cyclone Reports for Helene (2024) and Idalia (2023), and NHC/NWS reporting on Irma's Cudjoe Key (Cat 4) and Marco Island (Cat 3) landfalls of September 10, 2017. Andrew's and Ian's Category 5 designations follow the NHC Best Track reanalyses.