Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Downingtown, PA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is W Chester 2 NW, PA, 6 miles southeast of Downingtown at 375 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 86°F and low of 64°F; January is the coolest, at 40°F and 20°F. September is the wettest at 5.7 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.1 inches; the year adds up to 51.0 inches over 79 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 54% of the year's precipitation (27.3 of 51.0 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 32 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (12); a normal September there has highs of 78°F and 5.7 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 27 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 131 nights a year. Snowfall averages 30.5 inches a year, most of it in February. That 51.0 inches is more than at 138 of the 148 Pennsylvania stations used on this site (93%). Thorndale, 3 miles southwest, has its own station (Coatesville 2 W, PA): 52.2 inches a year, 1.2 more than here, and a July average high of 85°F against 86°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Marcus Hook, PA, 22 miles southeast, averaged 82°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 Philadelphia tide gauge, 31 miles from Downingtown, has risen 1.24 ± 0.04 inches per decade from 1900 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 451 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Downingtown: 312 thunderstorm wind reports, 93 flash floods, 27 floods, 12 lightning strikes and 7 heavy rain events. They killed 3 people and injured 11, and the NWS estimated $1.4 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 72 mph, on June 26, 2023. July has had the most flash floods, 36 of 93. Of the 788 Pennsylvania cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 665 have had fewer than Downingtown.

Flood insurance policyholders in Downingtown's ZIP code 19335 have filed 467 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $9.5 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Ida in 2021: 100 claims (21% of all) and $6.4 million, then Hurricane Floyd in 1999 with 42 and Mid-spring storms in 2014 with 41. 51% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 553 Pennsylvania cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 525 have fewer than Downingtown.