Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Great Falls, VA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Vienna, VA, 8 miles south of Great Falls at 418 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 84°F and low of 67°F; January is the coolest, at 42°F and 23°F. May and July are the wettest at 4.3 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.6 inches; the year adds up to 43.5 inches over 77 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 52% of the year's precipitation (22.7 of 43.5 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 3.5 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 13 days a year, almost all from June to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 99 nights a year. Snowfall averages 18.5 inches a year, most of it in February. That 43.5 inches is more than at 25 of the 109 Virginia stations used on this site (23%). Sterling, 5 miles west, has its own station (WFO Sterling, VA): 45.1 inches a year, 1.6 more than here, and a July average high of 87°F against 84°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Washington, DC, 18 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, 18 miles from Great Falls, 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 942 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Great Falls: 596 thunderstorm wind reports, 186 floods, 152 flash floods, 7 lightning strikes and 1 heavy rain event. They killed 5 people and injured 6, and the NWS estimated $5.5 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, 76 of 152. Of the 364 Virginia cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 350 have had fewer than Great Falls.

Flood insurance policyholders in Great Falls's ZIP code 22066 have filed 34 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1996, and were paid $325,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The year with the most claims was 2011, with 15. 6% 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, 80 have fewer than Great Falls.