Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Germantown, MD

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Damascus 3 SSW, MD, 6 miles north of Germantown at 700 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 84°F and low of 66°F; January is the coolest, at 39°F and 25°F. September is the wettest at 4.8 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.0 inches; the year adds up to 48.0 inches over 80 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 54% of the year's precipitation (25.7 of 48.0 inches); the other six months are drier. October has brought the most of the 26 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (9); a normal October there has highs of 65°F and 4.0 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 13 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 98 nights a year. Snowfall averages 31.4 inches a year, most of it in February. That 48.0 inches is more than at 33 of the 41 Maryland stations used on this site (80%). Montgomery Village, 4 miles east, has its own station (Rockville 1 NE, MD): 41.5 inches a year, 6.5 less than here, and a July average high of 87°F against 84°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Washington, DC, 25 miles southeast, 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, 25 miles from Germantown, 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 540 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Germantown: 411 thunderstorm wind reports, 63 flash floods, 58 floods and 8 lightning strikes. They killed 2 people and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $7.1 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 90 mph, on July 25, 2010. July has had the most flash floods, 24 of 63. Of the 239 Maryland cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 156 have had fewer than Germantown.

Flood insurance policyholders in Germantown's 2 ZIP codes have filed 16 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $69,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. 13% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 150 Maryland cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 18 have fewer than Germantown.