Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Grandy, NC

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Elizabeth City Cgas, NC, 17 miles west of Grandy at 13 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 88°F and low of 71°F; January is the coolest, at 52°F and 33°F. July is the wettest at 5.7 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.9 inches; the year adds up to 46.6 inches over 75 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 58% of the year's precipitation (26.8 of 46.6 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 117 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (43); a normal September there has highs of 82°F and 4.5 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 35 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 50 nights a year. That 46.6 inches is more than at 24 of the 140 North Carolina stations used on this site (17%). Kitty Hawk, 12 miles southeast, has its own station (Manteo Airport, NC): 46.5 inches a year, 0.1 less than here, and a July average high of 86°F against 88°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Duck, NC, 8 miles southeast, averaged 75°F in September and 45°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Duck tide gauge, 8 miles from Grandy, has risen 1.94 ± 0.11 inches per decade from 1978 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 19.4 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 118 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 59 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Grandy: 29 thunderstorm wind reports, 17 flash floods, 10 heavy rain events, 2 lightning strikes and 1 flood. They killed 0 people and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $662,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 78 mph, on June 20, 2019. Of the 472 North Carolina cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 247 have had fewer than Grandy.

Flood insurance policyholders in Grandy's ZIP code 27939 have filed 129 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $1.5 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Irene in 2011: 59 claims (46% of all) and $920,000, then Hurricane Michael in 2018 with 18 and Hurricane Floyd in 1999 with 12. 79% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 263 North Carolina cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 189 have fewer than Grandy.