Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Bethesda, MD

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Dalecarlia Rsvr, MD, 4 miles south of Bethesda at 150 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 88°F and low of 68°F; January is the coolest, at 43°F and 26°F. July is the wettest at 5.1 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.2 inches; the year adds up to 48.3 inches over 81 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 54% of the year's precipitation (25.9 of 48.3 inches); the other six months are drier. Highs reach 90°F on about 44 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 95 nights a year. Snowfall averages 5.8 inches a year, most of it in January. That 48.3 inches is more than at 37 of the 41 Maryland stations used on this site (90%). Kensington, 3 miles northeast, has its own station (Rockville 1 NE, MD): 41.5 inches a year, 6.8 less than here, and a July average high of 87°F against 88°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Washington, DC, 10 miles southeast, 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, 10 miles from Bethesda, 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 1,604 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Bethesda: 1,039 thunderstorm wind reports, 300 flash floods, 252 floods and 13 lightning strikes. They killed 14 people and injured 57, and the NWS estimated $73.0 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 92 mph, on July 12, 2022. July has had the most flash floods, 131 of 300. Of the 239 Maryland cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 237 have had fewer than Bethesda.

Flood insurance policyholders in Bethesda's 3 ZIP codes have filed 133 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 year with the most claims was 2020, with 19. 15% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 150 Maryland cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 120 have fewer than Bethesda.