Hurricanes that hit Florence County, South Carolina: hurricane history

71 storms have passed within 50 km of Florence County from 1851 to 2025, coloured by intensity on the map.

Tap or scroll to load the interactive map

Years1842 to 2026
Ocean basin

Choosing a minimum category hides storms with no wind speed in the record. To see which storms have passed near you, search a town or ZIP code, or tap the map.

Key
  • Tropical depression Winds below 34 knots (39 mph)
  • Tropical storm 34 to 63 knots (39 to 73 mph)
  • Category 1 64 to 82 knots (74 to 95 mph)
  • Category 2 83 to 95 knots (96 to 110 mph)
  • Category 3 96 to 112 knots (111 to 129 mph), major
  • Category 4 113 to 136 knots (130 to 156 mph), major
  • Category 5 137 knots (157 mph) or more, major
  • Unknown intensity No wind speed in the record
  • Post-tropical Storm has become post-tropical (dashed line)

How to read the lines. Each line is the track of one storm, drawn through its six-hourly positions and coloured by its intensity at each point (the Saffir-Simpson scale), so a line changes colour as the storm strengthens or weakens. Tap a line for its details, or tap anywhere else to see which storms have passed nearby. Weaker storms appear as you zoom in. Hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones are the same kind of storm with different names in different oceans.

Storms near Florence County

The record holds 71 tropical cyclones whose tracks passed within 50 km of Florence County, South Carolina between 1851 and 2025. The busiest month is September, with 22 of them. The strongest, measured where each came closest to the place, reached category 3 strength. 3 of the storms have no wind speed in the record.

  • 71storms within 50 km
  • 1major (category 3 to 5) near here
  • 16at category 1 strength or more

A storm counts once, however many times it came close. The category is the storm's strongest point within 50 km, which can be weaker than its peak elsewhere.

How strong were the storms near Florence County?

Category near hereStormsShare
Tropical depression1014%
Tropical storm4259%
Category 11115%
Category 246%
Category 311%
Category 400%
Category 500%
Unknown intensity34%

The agency behind most of the intensity figures here is the NOAA National Hurricane Center (HURDAT2, Atlantic).

Florence County storms over time

Storms by decade
Bar chart of storms by period. The most is 8 in 2020s.1850s1870s1890s1910s1930s1950s1970s1990s2010s

The 2020s only run to 2025, so that bar is for a shorter period. This place's record starts in 1851, and records before the satellite era (about the 1960s) are far less complete.

Show the numbers
PeriodCount
1850s5
1860s3
1870s4
1880s5
1890s7
1900s5
1910s3
1920s2
1930s1
1940s1
1950s3
1960s3
1970s5
1980s4
1990s2
2000s4
2010s6
2020s8

Earlier decades hold fewer storms partly because they were harder to see. Before weather satellites (about the 1960s) many storms that stayed at sea went unrecorded, so compare decades with care.

Storms by month
Bar chart of storms by period. The most is 22 in Sep.Jan0Feb0Mar0Apr0May5Jun8Jul12Aug12Sep22Oct10Nov2Dec0
Show the numbers
PeriodCount
Jan0
Feb0
Mar0
Apr0
May5
Jun8
Jul12
Aug12
Sep22
Oct10
Nov2
Dec0

Strongest storms near Florence County

  • Unnamed storm of September 1893 (North Atlantic)25 September 1893 to 15 October 1893, peak Category 3 (105 kt), 955 hPa
  • Unnamed storm of October 1899 (North Atlantic)26 October 1899 to 4 November 1899, peak Category 2 (95 kt)
  • Unnamed storm of August 1885 (North Atlantic)21 August 1885 to 28 August 1885, peak Category 2 (90 kt), 958 hPa
  • Unnamed storm of September 1896 (North Atlantic)22 September 1896 to 30 September 1896, Category 2 (85 kt) near here, peak Category 3 (110 kt), 960 hPa
  • Hugo (1989)10 September 1989 to 25 September 1989, Category 2 (85 kt) near here, peak Category 5 (140 kt), 918 hPa

Most recent storms near Florence County

  • Chantal (2025)4 July 2025 to 7 July 2025, peak Tropical storm (50 kt), 1,002 hPa
  • Debby (2024)2 August 2024 to 10 August 2024, Tropical storm (40 kt) near here, peak Category 1 (70 kt), 980 hPa
  • Idalia (2023)26 August 2023 to 8 September 2023, Tropical storm (50 kt) near here, peak Category 3 (105 kt), 945 hPa

Many of these storms killed people and destroyed homes. The figures are the official record's, and this page says nothing about their human cost.

A storm that came near several counties counts in each one, so county counts add up to more than the state's.

Notable storms near Florence County

  • Matthew (2016)28 September 2016 to 10 October 2016, peak Category 5 (145 kt), 934 hPa
  • Ian (2022)22 September 2022 to 1 October 2022, peak Category 5 (140 kt), 937 hPa
  • Florence (2018)30 August 2018 to 18 September 2018, peak Category 4 (130 kt), 937 hPa

More in South Carolina

Embed this map

Copy this code into your web page. It is free to use. Please keep the link under the map, as it is how people find where the map comes from.