Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Dighton, MA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Taunton, MA, 7 miles northeast of Dighton at 20 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 84°F and low of 63°F; January is the coolest, at 38°F and 20°F. March is the wettest at 5.1 inches of precipitation on average and February and May the driest at 3.4 inches; the year adds up to 48.9 inches over 80 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 48% of the year's precipitation (23.6 of 48.9 inches); the other six months are wetter. September has brought the most of the 56 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (19); a normal September there has highs of 75°F and 3.9 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 11 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 128 nights a year. Snowfall averages 25.7 inches a year, most of it in January. That 48.9 inches is more than at 37 of the 65 Massachusetts stations used on this site (57%). Berkley, 3 miles east, has its own station (Taunton Municipal Airport, MA): 47.7 inches a year, 1.2 less than here, and the same July average high, 84°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Fall River, MA, 8 miles south, averaged 75°F in July and 38°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Providence tide gauge, 14 miles from Dighton, has risen 1.04 ± 0.05 inches per decade from 1938 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 10.4 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 58 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 161 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Dighton: 71 thunderstorm wind reports, 46 floods, 28 flash floods, 15 lightning strikes and 1 heavy rain event. They killed 0 people and injured 4, and the NWS estimated $1.5 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 81 mph, on August 10, 2012. July has had the most flash floods, 14 of 28. Of the 339 Massachusetts cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 253 have had fewer than Dighton.

Flood insurance policyholders in Dighton's ZIP code 02715 have filed 57 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $392,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Bob in 1991: 22 claims (39% of all) and $240,000. 56% 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, 141 have fewer than Dighton.