Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Brooklyn, NY

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Ny Ave V Brooklyn, NY, 4 miles south of Brooklyn at 20 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 85°F and low of 70°F; January is the coolest, at 40°F and 28°F. July is the wettest at 4.9 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.0 inches; the year adds up to 47.1 inches over 75 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 52% of the year's precipitation (24.3 of 47.1 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 47 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (21); a normal September there has highs of 77°F and 3.9 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 14 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 66 nights a year. Snowfall averages 24.5 inches a year, most of it in February. That 47.1 inches is more than at 99 of the 137 New York stations used on this site (72%). Ridgewood, 5 miles northeast, has its own station (New York Laguardia Airport, NY): 45.4 inches a year, 1.7 less than here, and a July average high of 86°F against 85°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station The Battery, NY, 5 miles northwest, averaged 74°F in August and 39°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the The Battery tide gauge, 5 miles from Brooklyn, has risen 1.16 ± 0.02 inches per decade from 1856 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 11.6 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 66 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 507 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Brooklyn: 247 thunderstorm wind reports, 193 flash floods, 39 floods, 22 lightning strikes and 6 heavy rain events. They killed 16 people and injured 34, and the NWS estimated $183.6 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 125 mph, on September 16, 2010. September has had the most flash floods, 54 of 193. Of the 798 New York cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 734 have had fewer than Brooklyn.

Flood insurance policyholders in Brooklyn's 37 ZIP codes have filed 6,301 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $326.3 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Sandy in 2012: 3,560 claims (56% of all) and $303.1 million, then December Storm - Nor'easter in 1992 with 281 and Hurricane Ida in 2021 with 232. 79% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 549 New York cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 545 have fewer than Brooklyn.