Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Braintree, MA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Hingham, MA, 5 miles east of Braintree at 35 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 83°F and low of 63°F; January is the coolest, at 38°F and 22°F. March is the wettest at 5.4 inches of precipitation on average and July the driest at 3.6 inches; the year adds up to 52.3 inches over 84 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 48% of the year's precipitation (24.9 of 52.3 inches); the other six months are wetter. September has brought the most of the 50 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (20); a normal September there has highs of 74°F and 3.9 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 115 nights a year. Snowfall averages 50.9 inches a year, most of it in January. That 52.3 inches is more than at 56 of the 65 Massachusetts stations used on this site (86%). Randolph, 4 miles southwest, has its own station (Blue Hill Coop, MA): 53.9 inches a year, 1.6 more than here, and a July average high of 82°F against 83°F.

Sea level at the Boston tide gauge, 10 miles from Braintree, has risen 1.17 ± 0.03 inches per decade from 1921 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 11.7 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 68 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 344 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Braintree: 201 thunderstorm wind reports, 69 floods, 43 flash floods and 31 lightning strikes. They killed 2 people and injured 84, and the NWS estimated $8.3 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 104 mph, on May 21, 1996. July has had the most flash floods, 25 of 43. Of the 339 Massachusetts cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 294 have had fewer than Braintree.

Flood insurance policyholders in Braintree's ZIP code 02184 have filed 175 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $2.1 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from March 2010 Nor'easter in 2010: 53 claims (30% of all) and $1.2 million, then Flooding in 1996 with 23 and Not a named storm in 1982 with 13. 53% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 229 Massachusetts cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 189 have fewer than Braintree.