Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Belford, NJ

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Long Branch-Oakhurst, NJ, 9 miles southeast of Belford at 30 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 84°F and low of 67°F; January is the coolest, at 42°F and 25°F. August is the wettest at 6.3 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.3 inches; the year adds up to 52.4 inches over 81 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 53% of the year's precipitation (27.8 of 52.4 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 51 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (21); a normal September there has highs of 76°F and 4.3 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 94 nights a year. That 52.4 inches is more than at 49 of the 51 New Jersey stations used on this site (96%). Middletown, 2 miles west, has its own station (Freehold-Marlboro, NJ): 48.5 inches a year, 3.9 less than here, and a July average high of 87°F against 84°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Sandy Hook, NJ, 5 miles northeast, averaged 77°F in July and 38°F in January over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Sandy Hook tide gauge, 5 miles from Belford, has risen 1.68 ± 0.04 inches per decade from 1932 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 16.8 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 105 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 233 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Belford: 162 thunderstorm wind reports, 43 flash floods, 12 lightning strikes, 11 heavy rain events and 5 floods. They killed 4 people and injured 11, and the NWS estimated $5.6 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 75 mph, on August 27, 2001. July has had the most flash floods, 18 of 43. Of the 455 New Jersey cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 162 have had fewer than Belford.

Flood insurance policyholders in Belford's ZIP code 07718 have filed 279 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $7.9 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Sandy in 2012: 177 claims (63% of all) and $7.4 million, then Hurricane Irene in 2011 with 48 and December Storm - Nor'easter in 1992 with 22. 94% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 395 New Jersey cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 290 have fewer than Belford.