Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Chesapeake, VA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Norfolk S, VA, 8 miles north of Chesapeake at 10 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 88°F and low of 71°F; January is the coolest, at 49°F and 32°F. August is the wettest at 6.6 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.2 inches; the year adds up to 53.6 inches over 80 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 58% of the year's precipitation (31.3 of 53.6 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 89 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (37); a normal September there has highs of 80°F and 6.2 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 35 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 51 nights a year. That 53.6 inches is more than at 106 of the 109 Virginia stations used on this site (97%). Virginia Beach, 11 miles northeast, has its own station (Oceana NAS, VA): 47.0 inches a year, 6.6 less than here, and a July average high of 87°F against 88°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Money Point, VA, 2 miles northwest, averaged 82°F in July and 46°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from July to August. Sea level at the Sewells Point tide gauge, 13 miles from Chesapeake, has risen 1.90 ± 0.04 inches per decade from 1927 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 19.0 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 115 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 489 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Chesapeake: 223 thunderstorm wind reports, 115 heavy rain events, 113 flash floods, 30 floods and 8 lightning strikes. They killed 3 people and injured 10, and the NWS estimated $45.6 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 86 mph, on June 29, 2006. Of the 364 Virginia cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 340 have had fewer than Chesapeake.

Flood insurance policyholders in Chesapeake's 6 ZIP codes have filed 2,636 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $27.1 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from November 2009 Nor'easter in 2009: 570 claims (22% of all) and $9.1 million, then Hurricane Isabel in 2003 with 546 and Hurricane Irene in 2011 with 342. 77% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 183 Virginia cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 178 have fewer than Chesapeake.