Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Carteret, NJ

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Newark International Airport, NJ, 8 miles northeast of Carteret at 7 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 87°F and low of 69°F; January is the coolest, at 40°F and 26°F. July is the wettest at 4.7 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.0 inches; the year adds up to 46.6 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 (24.1 of 46.6 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 45 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (21); a normal September there has highs of 78°F and 3.8 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 28 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 80 nights a year. Snowfall averages 31.5 inches a year, most of it in February. That 46.6 inches is more than at 16 of the 51 New Jersey stations used on this site (31%). Port Reading, 1 mile southwest, has its own station (Cranford, NJ): 50.4 inches a year, 3.8 more than here, and a July average high of 86°F against 87°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station The Battery, NY, 14 miles northeast, averaged 74°F in August and 39°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Bergen Point tide gauge, 6 miles from Carteret, has risen 1.86 ± 0.13 inches per decade from 1981 to 2024, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 18.6 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 114 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 603 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Carteret: 328 thunderstorm wind reports, 189 flash floods, 53 floods, 24 lightning strikes and 9 heavy rain events. They killed 12 people and injured 20, and the NWS estimated $120.4 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 81 mph, on September 7, 1998. July has had the most flash floods, 76 of 189. Of the 455 New Jersey cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 328 have had fewer than Carteret.

Flood insurance policyholders in Carteret's ZIP code 07008 have filed 239 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $4.5 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Sandy in 2012: 65 claims (27% of all) and $2.1 million, then Hurricane Ida in 2021 with 42 and Hurricane Irene in 2011 with 37. 76% 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, 278 have fewer than Carteret.