Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Cambridge, MA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Jamaica Plain, MA, 5 miles south of Cambridge at 95 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 85°F and low of 64°F; January is the coolest, at 37°F and 19°F. December is the wettest at 5.1 inches of precipitation on average and July the driest at 3.5 inches; the year adds up to 49.4 inches. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 49% of the year's precipitation (24.4 of 49.4 inches); the other six months are wetter. September has brought the most of the 46 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (18); a normal September there has highs of 76°F and 4.0 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 20 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 121 nights a year. That 49.4 inches is more than at 42 of the 65 Massachusetts stations used on this site (65%). Somerville, 1 mile northeast, has its own station (Boston Logan International Airport, MA): 43.7 inches a year, 5.7 less than here, and a July average high of 82°F against 85°F.

Sea level at the Boston tide gauge, 4 miles from Cambridge, 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 597 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Cambridge: 357 thunderstorm wind reports, 148 floods, 60 flash floods and 32 lightning strikes. They killed 1 person and injured 26, and the NWS estimated $41.6 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 81 mph, on July 18, 2012. July has had the most flash floods, 39 of 60. Of the 339 Massachusetts cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 331 have had fewer than Cambridge.

Flood insurance policyholders in Cambridge's 5 ZIP codes have filed 82 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $2.3 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1998: 35 claims (43% of all) and $1.6 million, then March 2010 Nor'easter in 2010 with 11. The year with the most claims was 2010, with 17. 65% 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, 156 have fewer than Cambridge.