Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Bowie, MD

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Upper Marlboro 3 NNW, MD, 7 miles south of Bowie at 130 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 88°F and low of 67°F; January is the coolest, at 44°F and 25°F. September is the wettest at 4.5 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.7 inches; the year adds up to 45.1 inches over 74 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 54% of the year's precipitation (24.4 of 45.1 inches); the other six months are drier. October has brought the most of the 36 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (12); a normal October there has highs of 69°F and 4.1 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 32 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 103 nights a year. Snowfall averages 15.9 inches a year, most of it in February. That 45.1 inches is more than at 16 of the 41 Maryland stations used on this site (39%). Glenn Dale, 3 miles northwest, has its own station (Beltsville, MD): 44.0 inches a year, 1.1 less than here, and a July average high of 87°F against 88°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Washington, DC, 15 miles west, 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, 15 miles from Bowie, 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 540 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Bowie: 356 thunderstorm wind reports, 108 floods and 76 flash floods. They killed 0 people and injured 3, and the NWS estimated $4.4 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 96 mph, on June 22, 2012. June has had the most flash floods, 23 of 76. Of the 239 Maryland cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 163 have had fewer than Bowie.

Flood insurance policyholders in Bowie's 4 ZIP codes have filed 73 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1982, and were paid $206,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The year with the most claims was 2011, with 11. 16% 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, 99 have fewer than Bowie.