Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Fairfield, NJ

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Caldwell Essex Co Airport, NJ, in Fairfield at 173 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 85°F and low of 66°F; January is the coolest, at 38°F and 23°F. August is the wettest at 4.5 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.6 inches; the year adds up to 44.9 inches over 77 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 54% of the year's precipitation (24.1 of 44.9 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 45 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (19); a normal September there has highs of 76°F and 3.7 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 21 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 108 nights a year. That 44.9 inches is more than at 8 of the 51 New Jersey stations used on this site (16%). Pine Brook, 3 miles west, has its own station (Boonton 1 SE, NJ): 49.3 inches a year, 4.4 more than here, and the same July average high, 85°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station The Battery, NY, 19 miles southeast, averaged 74°F in August and 39°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Bergen Point tide gauge, 18 miles from Fairfield, has risen 1.86 ± 0.13 inches per decade from 1981 to 2024, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 18.6 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 114 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 561 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Fairfield: 268 thunderstorm wind reports, 191 flash floods, 70 floods, 21 lightning strikes and 11 heavy rain events. They killed 7 people and injured 18, and the NWS estimated $34.4 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 90 mph, on October 7, 2013. August has had the most flash floods, 70 of 191. Of the 455 New Jersey cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 330 have had fewer than Fairfield.

Flood insurance policyholders in Fairfield's 2 ZIP codes have filed 2,094 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $70.5 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Irene in 2011: 668 claims (32% of all) and $43.6 million, then Flooding in 1984 with 254 and April 2007 Nor'easter in 2007 with 253. 86% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 395 New Jersey cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 372 have fewer than Fairfield.