Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Arlington, VA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Washington Reagan Airport, VA, 4 miles southeast of Arlington at 10 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 90°F and low of 72°F; January is the coolest, at 45°F and 30°F. July is the wettest at 4.3 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.6 inches; the year adds up to 41.8 inches over 72 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 53% of the year's precipitation (22.3 of 41.8 inches); the other six months are drier. October has brought the most of the 33 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (11); a normal October there has highs of 69°F and 3.7 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 40 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 60 nights a year. Snowfall averages 13.7 inches a year, most of it in February. That 41.8 inches is more than at 11 of the 109 Virginia stations used on this site (10%). Falls Church, 4 miles west, has its own station (Dalecarlia Rsvr, MD): 48.3 inches a year, 6.5 more than here, and a July average high of 88°F against 90°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Washington, DC, 4 miles east, averaged 84°F in July and 39°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from July to August. Sea level at the Washington tide gauge, 4 miles from Arlington, has risen 1.40 ± 0.05 inches per decade from 1924 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 14.0 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 84 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 1,728 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Arlington: 1,075 thunderstorm wind reports, 338 flash floods, 303 floods, 10 lightning strikes and 2 heavy rain events. They killed 14 people and injured 63, and the NWS estimated $76.3 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 90 mph, on August 5, 2010. July has had the most flash floods, 140 of 338. Of the 364 Virginia cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 363 have had fewer than Arlington.

Flood insurance policyholders in Arlington's 9 ZIP codes have filed 218 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $1.9 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The year with the most claims was 2019, with 47. 8% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 183 Virginia cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 156 have fewer than Arlington.