Tornado Risk in New Castle County, DE
New Castle County, DE: what NOAA's tornado record says
28 tornado tracks have crossed New Castle County since 1954 by NOAA's count, roughly one every 2.7 years - the Elevated band on this site's scale. That is the 66th percentile nationally for tornado frequency. Delaware has 3 counties in this dataset; New Castle County ranks 1 of them by frequency.
The number that matters more than frequency
No violent (EF4-5) tornado has been recorded in New Castle County in NOAA's 76-year database. Of its 28 recorded tracks, 20 were weak (EF0-1) and 8 significant (EF2-3).
Shelter and safe-room economics
Delaware does not currently have a confirmed state rebate layered on top of FEMA's 75% Hazard Mitigation cost-share, so a New Castle County homeowner should expect the full national range: $2,890-$13,280, $7,645 typical.
Power after the storm, not just shelter during it
588,093 people live in New Castle County, and a tornado outbreak's power loss usually reaches far more of Delaware than the tracks themselves touch. A portable battery unit is the faster, no-fuel way to bridge that outage.
What New Castle County's figure does not tell you
New Castle County's figure is county-wide, not address-specific. New Castle County covers about 426 square miles, so a single touch here counts the same as a single touch in a county a fraction of that size. NOAA also documents that older records undercount weaker tornadoes from before Doppler radar became standard. New Castle County has about 588,093 residents.