Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Chalfont, PA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Doylestown Airport, PA, 6 miles northeast of Chalfont at 394 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 86°F and low of 65°F; January is the coolest, at 39°F and 23°F. July is the wettest at 5.5 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.5 inches; the year adds up to 48.0 inches over 78 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 55% of the year's precipitation (26.2 of 48.0 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 33 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (14); a normal September there has highs of 77°F and 4.4 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 20 days a year, almost all from June to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 106 nights a year. That 48.0 inches is more than at 111 of the 148 Pennsylvania stations used on this site (75%). North Wales, 5 miles southwest, has its own station (Norristown, PA): 50.7 inches a year, 2.7 more than here, and a July average high of 89°F against 86°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Bridesburg, PA, 22 miles south, averaged 80°F in July and 38°F in February over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from July. Sea level at the Philadelphia tide gauge, 24 miles from Chalfont, has risen 1.24 ± 0.04 inches per decade from 1900 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 12.4 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 73 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 322 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Chalfont: 253 thunderstorm wind reports, 41 flash floods, 15 lightning strikes, 10 floods and 3 heavy rain events. They killed 2 people and injured 12, and the NWS estimated $2.6 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 109 mph, on October 31, 2019. August has had the most flash floods, 11 of 41. Of the 788 Pennsylvania cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 484 have had fewer than Chalfont.

Flood insurance policyholders in Chalfont's ZIP code 18914 have filed 35 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $248,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Ida in 2021: 12 claims (34% of all) and $129,000. 54% 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, 208 have fewer than Chalfont.