History of Tropical Cyclone Remnants for Central Indiana

Figure 1: Map of the Tropical Systems & Remnants to move across central Indiana. Click to enlarge.

Figure 2: Zoomed in map of tracks, with most tracks labeled. Click the image for a larger version.

Tropical cyclone (an organized area of low pressure that develops over tropical waters) remnants can move into central Indiana. The most common impact to central Indiana from these remnants is rainfall, sometimes heavy. However, they can bring damaging winds and help spawn tornadoes. The remnants of Hurricane Ike brought damaging winds to central Indiana in 2008.

The NOAA Office for Coastal Management has a searchable archive for tropical system tracks.

Figure 1 is a static map of systems that moved across Indiana.

For this search for systems near central Indiana, any system that originated in the North Atlantic Basin and moved within 100 miles (87 nautical miles) of the center of Indianapolis was considered.

There were 22 systems whose remnant low pressure areas moved nearby central Indiana from 1866-2023

Figure 2 is a static map of the systems that moved within 100 miles of Indianapolis. Most of the systems have their names plotted on the map.

Current tropical systems are monitored by the National Hurricane Center.

See farther down the page for details about the systems impacting the area.

**List of Tropical Systems that Moved Across Central Indiana through 2023**
Name	Tropical Cyclone Dates	Central Indiana Date*	Indianapolis Rainfall**
Unnamed	May 24 to May 31, 1863	Unknown	Unknown
Unnamed	Sep 25 to Oct 6, 1898	Oct 4	0.75"
Unnamed	Aug 2 to Aug 18, 1901	Aug 18	1.09"
Unnamed	Jun 21 to Jun 29, 1902	Jun 28-29	2.44"
Unnamed	Aug 5 to Aug 23, 1915	Aug 20-21	1.46"
Unnamed	Aug 31 to Sep 6, 1915	Sep 6-7	0.34"
Unnamed	Oct 16 to Oct 21, 1923	Oct 18	2.15"
Unnamed	Jul 22 to Aug 2, 1926	Aug 1	1.58"
Unnamed	Aug 26 to Sep 4, 1932	Sep 3	2.00"
Unnamed	Sep 18 to Sep 21, 1932	Sep 20-21	1.45"
Unnamed	Jun 12 to Jun 18, 1939	Jun 17-18	0.01"
Unnamed	Sep 17 to Sep 27, 1941	Sep 25	0.16"
Unnamed	Sep 1 to Sep 6, 1948	Sep 5-6	1.48"
Candy	Jun 22 to Jun 26. 1968	Jun 25	0.71"
Bob	Jul 9 to Jul 16, 1979	Jul 12-13	4.36"
Claudette	Jul 15 to Jul 29, 1979	Jul 28	2.95"
Erin	Jul 31 to Aug 06, 1995	Aug 5-6	0.35"
Arlene	Jun 8 to Jun 14, 2005	Jun 12-13	3.12"
Dennis	Jul 4 to Jul 18, 2005	Jul 12-16	1.27"
Katrina	Aug 23 to Aug 31, 2005	Aug 30	2.16"
Ike	Sep 1 to Sep 15, 2008	Sep 14	0.22"
Alberto	May 25 to May 31, 2018	May 30	0.26"

* - dates are approximate
** - Rainfall may be influenced by other systems. Rain may have fallen on dates on either side of those listed due to other systems
Indianapolis was chosen due to its longer period of record for rainfall data.

The multiple tropical remnants in 1979 caused significant flash flooding in parts of central Indiana. See this excerpt from the Storm Data publication for details.

Notes: Moisture from other tropical remnants may have impacted the area and are not listed here. Some notable remnants fell just outside the 100 mile radius. Other parts of Indiana may have had much higher impacts than central Indiana for some remnants.
Additional information can be found by expanding the search parameters on the archive website and by looking through the Storm Data publication archives.

Thanks to WFO Chicago for the inspiration for this page..