Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit College Park, MD

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Beltsville, MD, 4 miles north of College Park at 145 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 87°F and low of 68°F; January is the coolest, at 43°F and 25°F. July is the wettest at 4.5 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.4 inches; the year adds up to 44.0 inches over 76 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 54% of the year's precipitation (23.9 of 44.0 inches); the other six months are drier. October has brought the most of the 33 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (12); a normal October there has highs of 68°F and 4.0 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 30 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 95 nights a year. Snowfall averages 15.8 inches a year, most of it in January. That 44.0 inches is more than at 12 of the 41 Maryland stations used on this site (29%). Riverdale, 1 mile south, has its own station (Natl Arboretum Dc, MD): 45.6 inches a year, 1.6 more than here, and a July average high of 90°F against 87°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Washington, DC, 9 miles southwest, averaged 84°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 Washington tide gauge, 9 miles from College Park, has risen 1.40 ± 0.05 inches per decade from 1924 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 14.0 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 84 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 1,191 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of College Park: 769 thunderstorm wind reports, 236 flash floods, 178 floods and 8 lightning strikes. They killed 10 people and injured 49, and the NWS estimated $25.2 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 96 mph, on June 22, 2012. July has had the most flash floods, 82 of 236. Of the 239 Maryland cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 229 have had fewer than College Park.

Flood insurance policyholders in College Park's ZIP code 20740 have filed 31 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $143,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. 16% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 150 Maryland cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 60 have fewer than College Park.