Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Big Pine Key, FL

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Marathon Airport, FL, 19 miles east of Big Pine Key at 8 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 92°F and low of 80°F; January is the coolest, at 76°F and 64°F. September is the wettest at 6.4 inches of precipitation on average and March the driest at 1.3 inches; the year adds up to 39.7 inches over 59 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 69% of the year's precipitation (27.4 of 39.7 inches); the other six months are drier. October has brought the most of the 72 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (26); a normal October there has highs of 86°F and 5.9 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 105 days a year, almost all from April to October. A night below freezing comes less than once a year on average. That 39.7 inches is more than at 1 of the 125 Florida stations used on this site (1%). Summerland Key, 9 miles west, has its own station (Key West NAS, FL): 43.6 inches a year, 3.9 more than here, and an August average high of 90°F against 92°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Vaca Key, Florida Bay, FL, 15 miles east, averaged 89°F in July and 72°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from April to October. Sea level at the Vaca Key tide gauge, 15 miles from Big Pine Key, has risen 1.65 ± 0.08 inches per decade from 1971 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 16.5 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 103 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 11 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Big Pine Key: 7 thunderstorm wind reports, 2 lightning strikes, 1 flood and 1 heavy rain event. None is recorded as killing or injuring anyone; the NWS estimated $10,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 75 mph, on February 2, 1998.

Flood insurance policyholders in Big Pine Key's ZIP code 33043 have filed 2,678 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $57.1 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Irma in 2017: 1,005 claims (38% of all) and $39.7 million, then Hurricane Georges (Keys) in 1998 with 905 and Hurricane Wilma in 2005 with 627. 97% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 340 Florida cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 297 have fewer than Big Pine Key.