Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Chadds Ford, PA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Wilmington Porter Rsch, DE, 6 miles southeast of Chadds Ford at 270 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 84°F and low of 67°F; January is the coolest, at 38°F and 24°F. July is the wettest at 5.2 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.0 inches; the year adds up to 50.5 inches over 81 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 53% of the year's precipitation (26.8 of 50.5 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 37 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (15); a normal September there has highs of 75°F and 5.1 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 17 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 87 nights a year. Snowfall averages 12.0 inches a year, most of it in January. That 50.5 inches is more than at 132 of the 148 Pennsylvania stations used on this site (89%). Thornton, 5 miles northeast, has its own station (W Chester 2 NW, PA): 51.0 inches a year, 0.5 more than here, and a July average high of 86°F against 84°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Marcus Hook, PA, 10 miles east, averaged 82°F in July and 39°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from July to August. Sea level at the Reedy Point tide gauge, 20 miles from Chadds Ford, has risen 1.55 ± 0.09 inches per decade from 1956 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 15.5 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 93 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 Chadds Ford: 414 thunderstorm wind reports, 107 flash floods, 50 floods, 16 heavy rain events and 16 lightning strikes. They killed 1 person and injured 18, and the NWS estimated $31.3 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 85 mph, on June 23, 2015. August has had the most flash floods, 42 of 107. Of the 788 Pennsylvania cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 680 have had fewer than Chadds Ford.

Flood insurance policyholders in Chadds Ford's ZIP code 19317 have filed 106 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $4.3 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Ida in 2021: 19 claims (18% of all) and $2.8 million, then Mid-spring storms in 2014 with 16 and Hurricane Floyd in 1999 with 13. 71% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 553 Pennsylvania cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 387 have fewer than Chadds Ford.