Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Brandon, FL

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Plant City, FL, 12 miles northeast of Brandon at 110 feet. July and August are the warmest, with an average high of 94°F and low of 73°F; January is the coolest, at 75°F and 50°F. June is the wettest at 9.7 inches of precipitation on average and November the driest at 1.8 inches; the year adds up to 56.2 inches over 79 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 69% of the year's precipitation (38.7 of 56.2 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 67 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (23); a normal September there has highs of 92°F and 7.0 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 111 days a year, almost all from April to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 3 nights a year. That 56.2 inches is more than at 79 of the 125 Florida stations used on this site (63%). Gibsonton, 8 miles southwest, has its own station (Tampa Bay Area WFO, FL): 53.7 inches a year, 2.5 less than here, and a July average high of 91°F against 94°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station East Bay, FL, 8 miles west, averaged 89°F in July and 64°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from May to October. Sea level at the East Bay tide gauge, 8 miles from Brandon, has risen 2.17 ± 0.16 inches per decade from 1976 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 21.7 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 125 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 141 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Brandon: 116 thunderstorm wind reports, 17 lightning strikes, 5 floods and 3 heavy rain events. They killed 2 people and injured 29, and the NWS estimated $6.3 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 86 mph, on June 26, 1997.

Flood insurance policyholders in Brandon's 2 ZIP codes have filed 268 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $7.3 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Milton in 2024: 60 claims (22% of all) and $4.8 million, then Flooding in 1988 with 36 and Hurricane Elena in 1985 with 30. 81% 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, 167 have fewer than Brandon.