List of Florida hurricanes

Portions of the coastline have return periods, or expected time between hurricane strikes of a certain intensity or category within 86 miles (138 km) of a given location, that are the lowest in the country.

Weather Bureau recognized Key West and Pensacola as the most hurricane-prone cities in the state; Key West experiences both storms developing from the western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean, while Pensacola has received hurricanes crossing the state as well as storms recurving in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

[5] The first recorded tropical cyclone to affect the area that is now the state of Florida occurred in 1523, when two ships and their crews were lost along the western coastline.

[6] A total 159 hurricanes are known to have affected the state prior to 1900, which collectively resulted in at least 6,504 fatalities and monetary damage of over $102 million (2017 dollars).

Additionally, tropical cyclones in Florida were directly responsible for about 3,500 fatalities during the period, most of which were from the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane, the state's deadliest.

Storms catalyzed development: impacts radiated societally, broaching complex political and socioeconomic topics, and lead to epochal changes such as flood control and building codes.

[8][9] In the period between 1950 and 1974, 85 tropical or subtropical cyclones impacted the state, which collectively resulted in about $7 billion (2017 dollars) in damage, primarily from Hurricanes Donna and Dora.

Several tropical cyclones produced over 20 inches (500 mm) of rainfall in the state, including Hurricane Easy, which is the highest total during the period.

In the period between 1975 and 1999, 83 tropical or subtropical cyclones affected the state, which collectively resulted in $51.1 billion (2017 dollars) in damage, primarily from Hurricane Andrew, and 54 direct casualties.

The period from 2000 to the present has been marked by several devastating North Atlantic hurricanes; as of 2023[update], 79 tropical or subtropical cyclones have affected the U.S. state of Florida.

[5][9] Originally, hurricanes were classified by central pressure in the 20th century;[9][12] however, modern practices quantify storm intensities by maximum sustained winds.

Saffir–Simpson rankings were given United States storms beginning in 1975,[13] first on the basis of pressure,[12] then on wind alone since the late 1980s;[13] informal metrics gauged intensity prior.