Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Highland Park, NJ

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is New Brunswick 3 SE, NJ, 2 miles south of Highland Park at 111 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 87°F and low of 66°F; January is the coolest, at 40°F and 23°F. June and July are the wettest at 4.8 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.0 inches; the year adds up to 49.5 inches over 82 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 53% of the year's precipitation (26.0 of 49.5 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 44 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (19); a normal September there has highs of 78°F and 4.2 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 24 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 111 nights a year. Snowfall averages 29.0 inches a year, most of it in February. That 49.5 inches is more than at 33 of the 51 New Jersey stations used on this site (65%). Edison, 4 miles northeast, has its own station (Plainfield, NJ): 48.7 inches a year, 0.8 less than here, and a July average high of 88°F against 87°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Sandy Hook, NJ, 22 miles east, averaged 77°F in July and 38°F in January over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Bergen Point tide gauge, 18 miles from Highland Park, has risen 1.86 ± 0.13 inches per decade from 1981 to 2024, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 18.6 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 114 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 508 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Highland Park: 283 thunderstorm wind reports, 130 flash floods, 47 floods, 25 lightning strikes and 23 heavy rain events. They killed 9 people and injured 17, and the NWS estimated $67.0 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 81 mph, on September 16, 2010. July has had the most flash floods, 53 of 130. Of the 455 New Jersey cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 279 have had fewer than Highland Park.

Flood insurance policyholders in Highland Park's ZIP code 08904 have filed 71 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $1.2 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Ida in 2021: 15 claims (21% of all) and $843,000, then Hurricane Irene in 2011 with 11. 56% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 395 New Jersey cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 182 have fewer than Highland Park.