No active hurricanes threatening Gainesville right now

Could the next one hit soon? 218 hurricanes have impacted the Gainesville area since 1852 — set up free alerts so you'll have time to prepare when one's on the way.

218
Hurricanes affecting Gainesville area
2024
Most recent
160 kt
Strongest peak winds
3 mi
Closest approach
Local note: Well inland from the Gulf, Gainesville is far more threatened by extreme rainfall and inland freshwater flooding from slow-moving tropical systems than by storm surge, with recent catastrophic inland impacts from storms like Ian (2022) and Idalia (2023) producing heavy rain and river flooding across the region.

Coverage on this page applies broadly to the Gainesville area — including Micanopy, Evinston, Earleton, Hawthorne, Waldo, Archer, Mc Intosh, Alachua. Tropical storms rarely respect city limits.

When do hurricanes typically threaten the Gainesville area?

Distribution of 218 hurricanes that have come within 150 mi of Gainesville, by month of closest approach.

J
F
M
A
6 M
27 J
15 J
42 A
62 S
55 O
10 N
1 D

Recent notable storms affecting the Gainesville area

Year Name Peak Cat Peak Winds Closest Approach
2024 DEBBY Cat 1 70 kt 66 mi
2024 HELENE Cat 4 120 kt 87 mi
2024 MILTON Cat 5 155 kt 123 mi
2023 IDALIA Cat 4 115 kt 75 mi
2022 NICOLE Cat 1 65 kt 52 mi
2022 IAN Cat 5 140 kt 134 mi
2021 ELSA Cat 1 75 kt 72 mi
2020 ETA Cat 4 130 kt 12 mi
2020 ISAIAS Cat 1 80 kt 142 mi
2019 DORIAN Cat 5 160 kt 160 mi
2018 MICHAEL Cat 5 140 kt 183 mi
2017 IRMA Cat 5 155 kt 24 mi
2016 MATTHEW Cat 5 145 kt 97 mi
2016 HERMINE Cat 1 70 kt 111 mi
2014 ARTHUR Cat 2 85 kt 189 mi
Hurricane-strength storms (Cat 1+) since 2006 that came within 200 miles of Gainesville. Includes storms whose center stayed offshore or hit nearby cities — wind, surge, and rainfall impacts extend far beyond the storm's path.

All-time closest approaches to Gainesville

Year Name Peak Cat Peak Winds Closest Approach Date of Closest
1964 UNNAMED TS 60 kt 3 mi Jun 06, 1964
2008 FAY TS 60 kt 6 mi Aug 22, 2008
1889 UNNAMED Cat 1 65 kt 7 mi Jun 17, 1889
1874 UNNAMED Cat 1 80 kt 11 mi Sep 28, 1874
1871 UNNAMED Cat 1 70 kt 12 mi Sep 06, 1871
1871 UNNAMED Cat 3 100 kt 12 mi Aug 18, 1871
2020 ETA Cat 4 130 kt 12 mi Nov 12, 2020
2007 BARRY TS 50 kt 13 mi Jun 02, 2007
1867 UNNAMED Cat 2 90 kt 16 mi Oct 07, 1867
1886 UNNAMED Cat 1 75 kt 16 mi Jul 19, 1886
Showing the 10 closest of 218 total storms within 150 mi of Gainesville since 1852.

If a hurricane threatens Gainesville

  1. Know your evacuation zone. Look up yours by address via your state or county emergency management office (Alachua County and surrounding areas).
  2. Set up alerts ahead of time. During an active storm, watches and warnings change every six hours. Email or text alerts from TropicalInfo give you the official NHC update the moment it's posted, with a plain-language summary.
  3. Prep your supplies before the storm is named. Stores empty out within hours of a watch. The 72-hour rule: water, food, batteries, fuel, medications, important documents. Our alerts can notify you of a storm long before it makes the news — giving you more time to get what you need before the panic-buying starts.
  4. Follow the cone, not the line. The forecast track is a best estimate — the cone shows where the center is likely to go. Impacts extend hundreds of miles from the center.

Set up free location-based alerts for Gainesville

Historical data: NOAA HURDAT2 Atlantic and Eastern North Pacific hurricane databases. Closest-approach calculated using great-circle distance between Gainesville (29.645°N, 82.3100°W) and each 6-hourly observation. Storms are included if their center passed within 150 mi of Gainesville — impacts (wind, surge, rainfall) routinely extend much further.