Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Bradenton, FL

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Bradenton 5 ESE, FL, 4 miles southeast of Bradenton at 20 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 92°F and low of 76°F; January is the coolest, at 72°F and 52°F. August is the wettest at 10.1 inches of precipitation on average and November the driest at 1.8 inches; the year adds up to 56.3 inches over 74 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 71% of the year's precipitation (40.1 of 56.3 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 73 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (25); a normal September there has highs of 90°F and 7.4 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 116 days a year, almost all from April to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 1 nights a year. That 56.3 inches is more than at 81 of the 125 Florida stations used on this site (65%). Longboat Key, 7 miles southwest, has its own station (Sarasota Bradenton Airport, FL): 49.2 inches a year, 7.1 less than here, and the same August average high, 92°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Port Manatee, FL, 12 miles north, averaged 89°F in July and 62°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from May to September. Sea level at the Port Manatee tide gauge, 12 miles from Bradenton, has risen 2.15 ± 0.13 inches per decade from 1976 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 21.5 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 123 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 124 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Bradenton: 88 thunderstorm wind reports, 13 heavy rain events, 11 floods, 10 lightning strikes and 2 flash floods. They killed 3 people and injured 58, and the NWS estimated $6.9 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 72 mph, on December 21, 2021.

Flood insurance policyholders in Bradenton's 8 ZIP codes have filed 2,573 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $94.7 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Helene in 2024: 791 claims (31% of all) and $72.2 million, then Flooding in 1992 with 257 and Torrential rain in 2001 with 172. 79% 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, 293 have fewer than Bradenton.