Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Cape May, NJ

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Cape May 2 NW, NJ, 1 mile southwest of Cape May at 20 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 86°F and low of 68°F; January is the coolest, at 43°F and 29°F. October is the wettest at 4.2 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.0 inches; the year adds up to 43.9 inches over 76 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 52% of the year's precipitation (22.7 of 43.9 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 61 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (26); a normal September there has highs of 79°F and 3.8 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 15 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 72 nights a year. Snowfall averages 14.8 inches a year, most of it in February. That 43.9 inches is more than at 6 of the 51 New Jersey stations used on this site (12%). Sea Isle City, 17 miles northeast, has its own station (Estell Manor, NJ): 50.4 inches a year, 6.5 more than here, and a July average high of 87°F against 86°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Cape May, NJ, 2 miles west, averaged 75°F in August and 40°F in January over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Cape May tide gauge, 2 miles from Cape May, has risen 2.01 ± 0.09 inches per decade from 1965 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 20.1 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 120 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 110 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Cape May: 52 thunderstorm wind reports, 35 heavy rain events, 9 flash floods, 9 floods and 5 lightning strikes. They killed 0 people and injured 6, and the NWS estimated $190,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 81 mph, on June 21, 2016. August has had the most flash floods, 6 of 9. Of the 455 New Jersey cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 11 have had fewer than Cape May.

Flood insurance policyholders in Cape May's ZIP code 08204 have filed 1,482 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $12.1 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1980: 614 claims (41% of all) and $3.7 million, then Hurricane Gloria in 1985 with 423 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012 with 100. The year with the most claims was 1985, with 429. 85% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 395 New Jersey cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 360 have fewer than Cape May.