Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Chatham, NJ

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Canoe Brook, NJ, 2 miles east of Chatham at 180 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 86°F and low of 66°F; January is the coolest, at 40°F and 22°F. August is the wettest at 4.9 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.0 inches; the year adds up to 50.4 inches over 80 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 54% of the year's precipitation (27.2 of 50.4 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 44 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (18); a normal September there has highs of 78°F and 4.6 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 29 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 117 nights a year. Snowfall averages 24.0 inches a year, most of it in February. That 50.4 inches is more than at 35 of the 51 New Jersey stations used on this site (69%). Mountainside, 4 miles southeast, has its own station (Cranford, NJ): 50.4 inches a year, the same as here, and the same July average high, 86°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station The Battery, NY, 20 miles east, 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, 15 miles from Chatham, 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 611 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Chatham: 367 thunderstorm wind reports, 159 flash floods, 53 floods, 26 lightning strikes and 6 heavy rain events. They killed 12 people and injured 15, and the NWS estimated $49.6 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 92 mph, on July 1, 2013. Of the 455 New Jersey cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 303 have had fewer than Chatham.

Flood insurance policyholders in Chatham's ZIP code 07928 have filed 31 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $237,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. 68% 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, 89 have fewer than Chatham.