Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Frederica, DE

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Dover, DE, 8 miles north of Frederica at 30 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 87°F and low of 69°F; January is the coolest, at 44°F and 28°F. August is the wettest at 4.9 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.1 inches; the year adds up to 47.7 inches over 74 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 53% of the year's precipitation (25.4 of 47.7 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 53 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (18); a normal September there has highs of 79°F and 4.3 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 25 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 79 nights a year. Snowfall averages 13.2 inches a year, most of it in February. That 47.7 inches is more than at 8 of the 11 Delaware stations used on this site (73%). Milford, 8 miles south, has its own station (Greenwood 2NE, DE): 46.3 inches a year, 1.4 less than here, and the same July average high, 87°F.

Sea level at the Lewes tide gauge, 26 miles from Frederica, has risen 1.49 ± 0.05 inches per decade from 1919 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 14.9 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 89 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 173 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Frederica: 114 thunderstorm wind reports, 38 heavy rain events, 11 floods, 7 flash floods and 3 lightning strikes. None is recorded as killing or injuring anyone; the NWS estimated $1.5 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 85 mph, on May 12, 2002. August has had the most flash floods, 3 of 7. Of the 37 Delaware cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 2 have had fewer than Frederica.

Flood insurance policyholders in Frederica's ZIP code 19946 have filed 119 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1980, and were paid $837,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1992: 36 claims (30% of all) and $126,000, then Hurricane Irene in 2011 with 10. The year with the most claims was 2008, with 26. 41% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 24 Delaware cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 13 have fewer than Frederica.