Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Falls Church, VA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Dalecarlia Rsvr, MD, 6 miles northeast of Falls Church at 150 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 88°F and low of 68°F; January is the coolest, at 43°F and 26°F. July is the wettest at 5.1 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.2 inches; the year adds up to 48.3 inches over 81 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 54% of the year's precipitation (25.9 of 48.3 inches); the other six months are drier. October has brought the most of the 30 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (10); a normal October there has highs of 68°F and 4.4 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 44 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 95 nights a year. Snowfall averages 5.8 inches a year, most of it in January. That 48.3 inches is more than at 88 of the 109 Virginia stations used on this site (81%). Annandale, 4 miles southwest, has its own station (Vienna, VA): 43.5 inches a year, 4.8 less than here, and a July average high of 84°F against 88°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Washington, DC, 8 miles east, 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, 8 miles from Falls Church, 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 1,666 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Falls Church: 992 thunderstorm wind reports, 346 floods, 318 flash floods, 8 lightning strikes and 2 heavy rain events. They killed 10 people and injured 47, and the NWS estimated $59.9 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 90 mph, on August 5, 2010. July has had the most flash floods, 134 of 318. Of the 364 Virginia cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 361 have had fewer than Falls Church.

Flood insurance policyholders in Falls Church's 5 ZIP codes have filed 248 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $3.3 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The year with the most claims was 2011, with 63. 8% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 183 Virginia cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 159 have fewer than Falls Church.