Sullivan County, NY Tornado Risk & Storm Shelter Cost
Sullivan County's tornado history, by the numbers
Since 1961, NOAA has logged 11 tornado tracks crossing Sullivan County - one about every 6.9 years, which lands it in our Low band. Nationally, Sullivan County ranks at the 32nd percentile for tornado frequency. Among 62 New York counties in this dataset, Sullivan County ranks 17 for how often a tornado touches down.
Sullivan County's EF4-5 history
Sullivan County's record has no EF4-5 tornado - its 11 tracks split 8 weak and 3 significant. That does not rule one out in the future, only that none has been recorded since 1950.
What a storm shelter costs near Sullivan County
For a Sullivan County homeowner, budget $2,890-$13,280 for a shelter or safe room ($7,645 typical) - this pass found no New York-specific rebate on top of FEMA's underlying 75% national cost-share program.
The outage nobody plans for
Power loss after a tornado outbreak in New York often reaches homes the storm itself never touched. A battery-backup unit covers the outage without the fuel and venting a generator needs.
Read this before you rely on it
This is a county-level figure, not a per-address probability. Sullivan County covers about 968 square miles, so a single touch here counts the same as a single touch in a county a fraction of that size. Pre-radar-era records (before the 1990s) are also documented by NOAA as undercounting weaker tornadoes in sparsely-instrumented areas. Sullivan County has about 80,450 residents.