Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Burgaw, NC

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Willard 4 SW, NC, 10 miles northwest of Burgaw at 55 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 89°F and low of 69°F; January is the coolest, at 56°F and 32°F. August is the wettest at 7.1 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.2 inches; the year adds up to 55.8 inches over 78 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 60% of the year's precipitation (33.4 of 55.8 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 119 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (45); a normal September there has highs of 82°F and 6.9 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 60 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 49 nights a year. Snowfall averages 0.8 inches a year, most of it in February. That 55.8 inches is more than at 109 of the 140 North Carolina stations used on this site (78%). Rocky Point, 8 miles south, has its own station (Wilmington 7 N, NC): 63.5 inches a year, 7.7 more than here, and the same July average high, 89°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Wilmington, NC, 23 miles south, averaged 84°F in July and 49°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from June to August. Sea level at the Wilmington tide gauge, 23 miles from Burgaw, has risen 1.10 ± 0.07 inches per decade from 1935 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 11.0 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 64 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 87 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Burgaw: 53 thunderstorm wind reports, 18 flash floods, 11 floods, 3 heavy rain events and 2 lightning strikes. They killed 0 people and injured 7, and the NWS estimated $3.5 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 96 mph, on March 15, 2008. April has had the most flash floods, 7 of 18. Of the 472 North Carolina cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 260 have had fewer than Burgaw.

Flood insurance policyholders in Burgaw's ZIP code 28425 have filed 575 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1984, and were paid $41.2 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Florence in 2018: 258 claims (45% of all) and $33.4 million, then Hurricane Floyd in 1999 with 140 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016 with 49. 91% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 263 North Carolina cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 226 have fewer than Burgaw.