Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Cape Elizabeth, ME

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Portland International Jetport, ME, 5 miles northwest of Cape Elizabeth at 45 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 80°F and low of 61°F; January is the coolest, at 32°F and 16°F. October is the wettest at 5.3 inches of precipitation on average and July the driest at 3.4 inches; the year adds up to 48.3 inches over 80 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 51% of the year's precipitation (24.6 of 48.3 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 36 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (15); a normal September there has highs of 71°F and 3.8 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 5 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 144 nights a year. Snowfall averages 68.7 inches a year, most of it in January. That 48.3 inches is more than at 25 of the 47 Maine stations used on this site (53%). Gorham, 13 miles northwest, has its own station (West Buxton 2 NNW, ME): 49.7 inches a year, 1.4 more than here, and a July average high of 82°F against 80°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Portland, ME, 4 miles north, averaged 63°F in August and 36°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Portland tide gauge, 4 miles from Cape Elizabeth, has risen 0.78 ± 0.03 inches per decade from 1912 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 7.8 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 37 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 109 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Cape Elizabeth: 70 thunderstorm wind reports, 28 floods, 10 flash floods and 1 lightning strike. They killed 0 people and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $11.9 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 86 mph, on July 24, 2012. Of the 154 Maine cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 119 have had fewer than Cape Elizabeth.

Flood insurance policyholders in Cape Elizabeth's ZIP code 04107 have filed 50 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $479,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The year with the most claims was 2024, with 11. 24% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 61 Maine cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 41 have fewer than Cape Elizabeth.