Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Forest Hills, NY

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is New York Laguardia Airport, NY, 4 miles northwest of Forest Hills at 11 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 86°F and low of 72°F; January is the coolest, at 40°F and 29°F. August is the wettest at 4.4 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.9 inches; the year adds up to 45.4 inches over 75 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 52% of the year's precipitation (23.6 of 45.4 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 47 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (21); a normal September there has highs of 77°F and 3.9 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 22 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 62 nights a year. Snowfall averages 29.8 inches a year, most of it in February. That 45.4 inches is more than at 85 of the 137 New York stations used on this site (62%). Richmond Hill, 2 miles southeast, has its own station (New York Jfk International Airport, NY): 43.5 inches a year, 1.9 less than here, and a July average high of 84°F against 86°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Kings Point, NY, 8 miles northeast, averaged 74°F in August and 38°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Kings Point tide gauge, 8 miles from Forest Hills, has risen 1.08 ± 0.04 inches per decade from 1931 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 10.8 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 62 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 592 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Forest Hills: 276 thunderstorm wind reports, 243 flash floods, 45 floods, 23 lightning strikes and 5 heavy rain events. They killed 21 people and injured 57, and the NWS estimated $130.4 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 125 mph, on September 16, 2010. July has had the most flash floods, 62 of 243. Of the 798 New York cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 779 have had fewer than Forest Hills.

Flood insurance policyholders in Forest Hills's ZIP code 11375 have filed 63 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $1.8 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Ida in 2021: 11 claims (17% of all) and $1.5 million. 33% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 549 New York cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 321 have fewer than Forest Hills.