Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Bedford, MA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Bedford, MA, 1 mile southwest of Bedford at 160 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 84°F and low of 61°F; January is the coolest, at 36°F and 18°F. October is the wettest at 4.9 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.4 inches; the year adds up to 49.0 inches over 85 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 50% of the year's precipitation (24.5 of 49.0 inches). September has brought the most of the 48 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (18); a normal September there has highs of 74°F and 3.7 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 13 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 140 nights a year. Snowfall averages 59.0 inches a year, most of it in January. That 49.0 inches is more than at 38 of the 65 Massachusetts stations used on this site (58%). Burlington, 4 miles east, has its own station (Reading, MA): 49.9 inches a year, 0.9 more than here, and the same July average high, 84°F.

Sea level at the Boston tide gauge, 15 miles from Bedford, has risen 1.17 ± 0.03 inches per decade from 1921 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 11.7 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 68 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 312 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Bedford: 208 thunderstorm wind reports, 68 floods, 20 lightning strikes and 16 flash floods. They killed 0 people and injured 4, and the NWS estimated $12.8 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 100 mph, on July 7, 2014. July has had the most flash floods, 7 of 16. Of the 339 Massachusetts cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 138 have had fewer than Bedford.

Flood insurance policyholders in Bedford's ZIP code 01730 have filed 116 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $1.1 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1996: 38 claims (33% of all) and $345,000, then Not a named storm in 1979 with 24 and March 2010 Nor'easter in 2010 with 20. The year with the most claims was 1979, with 21. 75% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 229 Massachusetts cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 171 have fewer than Bedford.