USA.com / Massachusetts / Middlesex County / Wilmington, MA / Natural Disasters and Weather Extremes
Wilmington, MA Natural Disasters and Weather Extremes
Hot Rankings
The chance of earthquake damage in Wilmington is higher than Massachusetts average and is lower than the national average. The risk of tornado damage in Wilmington is higher than Massachusetts average and is lower than the national average.
Earthquake Index, #117
| Wilmington, MA | 1.02 |
| Massachusetts | 0.70 |
| U.S. | 1.81 |
The earthquake index value is calculated based on historical earthquake events data using USA.com algorithms. It is an indicator of the earthquake level in a region. A higher earthquake index value means a higher chance of an earthquake.
Volcano Index, #1
| Wilmington, MA | 0.0000 |
| Massachusetts | 0.0000 |
| U.S. | 0.0023 |
The volcano index value is calculated based on the currently known volcanoes using USA.com algorithms. It is an indicator of the possibility of a region being affected by a possible volcano eruption. A higher volcano index value means a higher chance of being affected.
Tornado Index, #224
| Wilmington, MA | 103.61 |
| Massachusetts | 87.60 |
| U.S. | 136.45 |
The tornado index value is calculated based on historical tornado events data using USA.com algorithms. It is an indicator of the tornado level in a region. A higher tornado index value means a higher chance of tornado events.
Other Weather Extremes Events
A total of 2,866 other weather extremes events within 50 miles of Wilmington, MA were recorded from 1950 to 2010. The following is a break down of these events:
| Type | Count | Type | Count | Type | Count | Type | Count | Type | Count |
| Avalanche: | 0 | Blizzard: | 1 | Cold: | 10 | Dense Fog: | 0 | Drought: | 10 |
| Dust Storm: | 0 | Flood: | 292 | Hail: | 633 | Heat: | 1 | Heavy Snow: | 79 |
| High Surf: | 0 | Hurricane: | 0 | Ice Storm: | 3 | Landslide: | 0 | Strong Wind: | 57 |
| Thunderstorm Winds: | 1,248 | Tropical Storm: | 0 | Wildfire: | 0 | Winter Storm: | 15 | Winter Weather: | 4 |
| Other: | 513 | ||||||||
Volcanos Nearby
No volcano is found in or near Wilmington, MA.
Historical Earthquake Events
A total of 1 historical earthquake event that had a recorded magnitude of 3.5 or above found in or near Wilmington, MA.
| Distance (miles) | Date | Magnitude | Depth (km) | Latitude | Longitude |
| 19.1 | 1963-10-16 | 4.5 | 20 | 42.5 | -70.8 |
Historical Tornado Events
A total of 34 historical tornado events that had recorded magnitude of 2 or above found in or near Wilmington, MA.
| Distance (miles) | Date | Magnitude | Start Lat/Log | End Lat/Log | Length | Width | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage | Crop Damage | Affected County |
| 4.0 | 1974-09-29 | 3 | 42°36'N / 71°14'W | 42°37'N / 71°12'W | 0 | 1 | 250K | 0 | Middlesex | ||
| 8.2 | 1958-07-11 | 2 | 42°30'N / 71°18'W | 1.50 Miles | 17 Yards | 0 | 0 | 250K | 0 | Middlesex | |
| 8.6 | 1958-08-25 | 2 | 42°32'N / 71°00'W | 1.00 Mile | 50 Yards | 0 | 0 | 3K | 0 | Middlesex | |
| 11.7 | 1972-07-21 | 2 | 42°41'N / 71°25'W | 42°35'N / 71°20'W | 7.60 Miles | 37 Yards | 0 | 4 | 2.5M | 0 | Middlesex |
| 12.7 | 1965-08-28 | 2 | 42°42'N / 71°20'W | 2.00 Miles | 33 Yards | 0 | 0 | 250K | 0 | Middlesex | |
| 13.0 | 1951-08-21 | 2 | 42°42'N / 71°08'W | 42°46'N / 70°58'W | 9.30 Miles | 100 Yards | 0 | 0 | 3K | 0 | Essex |
| 16.6 | 1961-07-02 | 2 | 42°50'N / 71°16'W | 42°46'N / 71°12'W | 5.10 Miles | 400 Yards | 0 | 1 | 250K | 0 | Rockingham |
| 18.3 | 1956-11-21 | 2 | 42°48'N / 71°00'W | 0.80 Mile | 17 Yards | 0 | 0 | 25K | 0 | Essex | |
| 18.3 | 1970-10-03 | 3 | 42°33'N / 71°32'W | 42°34'N / 71°31'W | 1 | 0 | 250K | 0 | Middlesex | ||
| 21.1 | 1951-08-21 | 2 | 42°50'N / 71°08'W | 42°54'N / 71°04'W | 4.90 Miles | 67 Yards | 0 | 0 | 3K | 0 | Rockingham |
| 24.9 | 1963-05-20 | 2 | 42°24'N / 71°36'W | 0.30 Mile | 50 Yards | 0 | 0 | 3K | 0 | Worcester | |
| 27.5 | 1956-11-21 | 2 | 42°10'N / 71°10'W | 0.10 Mile | 17 Yards | 0 | 0 | 3K | 0 | Norfolk | |
| 29.1 | 2006-05-21 | 2 | 42°55'N / 70°51'W | 42°55'N / 70°51'W | 0.10 Mile | 20 Yards | 0 | 2 | 3K | 0 | Rockingham |
| Brief Description: A small, but rather intense, tornado touched down on Interstate 95 about two miles south of the Hampton Toll Booths in the town of Hampton Falls. While several funnel clouds were observed over southeastern New Hampshire that Sunday evening, the actual tornado touched down just as one of the funnel clouds approached I-95. The tornado then lifted off the ground about 100 yards after crossing I-95. The most significant damage was to a truck parked along the side of the highway. The trucked was lifted off the ground briefly by the tornado, thrown about 10 feet, landed on the passenger side, and then rolled 1 1/4 times ending up on its roof. Two men were in the truck at the time and were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. After interviews with the occupants and eyewitness reports which indicated that the vehicle was lifted into the air, the tornado intensity was classified as F2 on the Fujita scale. These reports were consistent with the ground-based assessment. | |||||||||||
| 29.3 | 1963-06-09 | 2 | 43°00'N / 71°30'W | 42°52'N / 71°24'W | 10.00 Miles | 77 Yards | 0 | 0 | 250K | 0 | Hillsborough |
| 29.5 | 1953-06-09 | 3 | 42°58'N / 70°58'W | 1.50 Miles | 100 Yards | 0 | 5 | 25K | 0 | Rockingham | |
| 29.5 | 1956-11-21 | 2 | 42°24'N / 71°42'W | 0.10 Mile | 17 Yards | 0 | 0 | 2.5M | 0 | Worcester | |
| 29.5 | 1963-05-20 | 2 | 42°24'N / 71°42'W | 1.50 Miles | 33 Yards | 0 | 0 | 25K | 0 | Worcester | |
| 29.9 | 1957-07-05 | 2 | 42°32'N / 71°45'W | 0.50 Mile | 20 Yards | 0 | 0 | 3K | 0 | Worcester | |
| 35.2 | 1953-06-09 | 3 | 42°06'N / 71°29'W | 42°03'N / 71°14'W | 13.10 Miles | 667 Yards | 0 | 15 | 2.5M | 0 | Norfolk |
| 35.6 | 1953-06-09 | 3 | 42°03'N / 71°14'W | 42°03'N / 71°12'W | 0 | 1 | 2.5M | 0 | Bristol | ||
| 35.9 | 1970-10-03 | 3 | 42°20'N / 72°10'W | 42°33'N / 71°32'W | 35.40 Miles | 60 Yards | 0 | 0 | 250K | 0 | Worcester |
| 36.7 | 1953-06-09 | 4 | 42°28'N / 72°10'W | 42°18'N / 71°31'W | 34.90 Miles | 900 Yards | 90 | 1228 | 250.0M | 0 | Worcester |
| 37.2 | 1966-08-31 | 2 | 42°18'N / 71°48'W | 1.00 Mile | 67 Yards | 0 | 0 | 0K | 0 | Worcester | |
| 37.2 | 1968-07-17 | 2 | 42°50'N / 71°48'W | 0.10 Mile | 17 Yards | 0 | 0 | 25K | 0 | Hillsborough | |
| 37.9 | 1953-06-09 | 3 | 42°10'N / 71°46'W | 42°06'N / 71°29'W | 14.90 Miles | 667 Yards | 0 | 1 | 2.5M | 0 | Worcester |
| 40.9 | 1981-06-22 | 3 | 42°30'N / 72°02'W | 42°33'N / 71°54'W | 7.10 Miles | 167 Yards | 0 | 3 | 25K | 0 | Worcester |
| 41.3 | 1957-06-19 | 2 | 43°06'N / 70°48'W | 0.20 Mile | 77 Yards | 0 | 1 | 25K | 0 | Rockingham | |
| 42.4 | 1976-05-03 | 2 | 43°08'N / 70°51'W | 1.00 Mile | 33 Yards | 0 | 0 | 250K | 0 | Strafford | |
| 43.1 | 2008-07-24 | 2 | 43°09'N / 71°18'W | 43°13'N / 71°16'W | 5.00 Miles | 880 Yards | 1 | 2 | 0K | 0K | Rockingham |
| Brief Description: EVENT NARRATIVE: An E-F2 tornado touched down about 5 miles southwest of Northwood Narrows and moved north northeast for a little over 5 miles before crossing into Merrimack County. Numerous trees were downed and many homes were damaged or destroyed. A woman was killed when the house she was in collapsed. EPISODE NARRATIVE: On July 24th a closed 500 mb low was digging over NY/PA and waves of surface low pressure were riding north along the associated surface front to the west of the forecast area. A strong 50kt low level jet was also riding northward ahead of the front. This resulted in extremely high helicity values across southern and central New Hampshire. A surface dew point boundary was in place across south central New Hampshire with readings in the lower 70s to the east of this boundary and in the mid 60s to the west. Sunshine began breaking out to the east of this boundary by mid morning and convection began developing by late morning. Storms grew rapidly and quickly began rotating. A tornado rated as strong as F2 cut a 50 mile path through 5 counties in southeast New Hampshire resulting in 1 fatality and damage to over 100 structures some of which were completely destroyed. | |||||||||||
| 43.4 | 1967-11-18 | 2 | 41°58'N / 70°54'W | 0.10 Mile | 17 Yards | 0 | 0 | 0K | 0 | Plymouth | |
| 43.8 | 1997-07-03 | 2 | 42°57'N / 71°51'W | 42°57'N / 71°51'W | 2.00 Miles | 250 Yards | 0 | 0 | 250K | 0 | Hillsborough |
| Brief Description: Very severe thunderstorms moved through Cheshire and Hillsborough Counties, producing two tornadoes, microbursts, damaging thunderstorm winds, and large hail. It appears that a microburst hit Hinsdale and both a microburst and weak tornado affected the town of Swanzey, just south of Keene, in Cheshire County. A horse barn was destroyed and an ice arena damaged at the Cheshire Fairgrounds. Pieces of aluminum were wrapped around street lamps and two-by-fours were driven into the metal sides and roof of the ice arena. One person was slightly injured by flying glass fragments when her car windows were blown in. Many trees were uprooted or blown down. Damage was estimated at approximately $500,000 at the Fairgrounds. There was evidence of both straight-line wind damage and some rotation associated with this storm. In Hillsborough County, a tornado touched down in the western portion of the town of Greenfield just to the west of Otter Lake. It then moved to the northeast, damaging a sawmill, destroying a recycling facility, and damaging some buildings at a campground. Wood and aluminum buildings were torn apart or blown over. Many large trees were broken off near their bases and hundreds more had their tops broken off. There were no injuries reported. Trees were reported blown down in Marlborough and a microburst may have occurred in nearby Dublin, where numerous trees and tree limbs were blown down along the shore of the Howe Reservoir. All of the aforementioned damage was along a path cut by the same thunderstorm complex. However, trees also were reported blown down in the towns of Walpole and Marlow in northern Cheshire County from a separate cluster of thunderstorms. About 1,700 electric customers in the Monadnock Region lost power during the storms. Most of the outages occurred in the towns of Marlborough, Marlow, Richmond, Swanzey, and Winchester. Another 100 lost power in Walpole. Statewide, about 10,000 electric customers lost power. | |||||||||||
| 45.8 | 1961-07-02 | 2 | 43°06'N / 71°42'W | 2.00 Miles | 17 Yards | 0 | 0 | 3K | 0 | Hillsborough | |
| 47.5 | 1979-08-10 | 2 | 42°19'N / 72°08'W | 42°19'N / 71°56'W | 9.70 Miles | 30 Yards | 2 | 2 | 2.5M | 0 | Worcester |
| 47.6 | 2008-07-24 | 2 | 43°13'N / 71°16'W | 43°17'N / 71°15'W | 5.00 Miles | 880 Yards | 0 | 0 | 0K | 0K | Merrimack |
| Brief Description: EVENT NARRATIVE: An E-F2 tornado moving north northeast out of Rockingham County crossed into Merrimack County near Route 202 and continued north northeast a little over 5 miles before entering Belknap County. Homes and buildins in the tornadoes path sustained damage along the path which was up to a half mile wide. EPISODE NARRATIVE: On July 24th a closed 500 mb low was digging over NY/PA and waves of surface low pressure were riding north along the associated surface front to the west of the forecast area. A strong 50kt low level jet was also riding northward ahead of the front. This resulted in extremely high helicity values across southern and central New Hampshire. A surface dew point boundary was in place across south central New Hampshire with readings in the lower 70s to the east of this boundary and in the mid 60s to the west. Sunshine began breaking out to the east of this boundary by mid morning and convection began developing by late morning. Storms grew rapidly and quickly began rotating. A tornado rated as strong as F2 cut a 50 mile path through 5 counties in southeast New Hampshire resulting in 1 fatality and damage to over 100 structures some of which were completely destroyed. | |||||||||||
* The information on this page is based on the global volcano database, the U.S. earthquake database of 1638-1985, and the U.S. Tornado and Weather Extremes database of 1950-2010.