Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Dartmouth, MA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is New Bedford Municipal Airport, MA, 3 miles northeast of Dartmouth at 80 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 83°F and low of 62°F; January is the coolest, at 39°F and 21°F. March is the wettest at 4.8 inches of precipitation on average and February and July the driest at 3.0 inches; the year adds up to 45.8 inches over 78 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 50% of the year's precipitation (22.9 of 45.8 inches). September has brought the most of the 57 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (19); a normal September there has highs of 74°F and 3.6 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 7 days a year, almost all from July to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 123 nights a year. That 45.8 inches is more than at 16 of the 65 Massachusetts stations used on this site (25%). South Dartmouth, 4 miles southeast, has its own station (New Bedford Coop, MA): 52.3 inches a year, 6.5 more than here, and a July average high of 84°F against 83°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Fall River, MA, 10 miles northwest, averaged 75°F in July and 38°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Woods Hole tide gauge, 18 miles from Dartmouth, has risen 1.24 ± 0.03 inches per decade from 1932 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 175 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Dartmouth: 64 floods, 59 thunderstorm wind reports, 33 flash floods and 19 lightning strikes. They killed 1 person and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $3.4 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 81 mph, on June 30, 1998. August has had the most flash floods, 12 of 33. Of the 339 Massachusetts cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 274 have had fewer than Dartmouth.

Flood insurance policyholders in Dartmouth's ZIP code 02747 have filed 15 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $80,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. 33% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 229 Massachusetts cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 38 have fewer than Dartmouth.