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NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database

Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Hingham, MA

Every tropical system within 75 miles since 1851 and every tornado within 25 miles since 1950.

Data: NOAA NHC HURDAT2 and NOAA SPC tornado and hail reports, through 2025 · Updated

50 tropical systems have passed within 75 miles of Hingham, Massachusetts since 1851, 12 of them at hurricane strength; the most recent was Ida in 2021. Since 1950, 33 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 1 of them rated EF3 or stronger.

Hurricanes
12

within 75 mi, since 1851

Tropical storms
38

below hurricane strength

Tornadoes
33

within 25 mi, since 1950

EF3 or stronger
1

2 deaths in all

What the records show for Hingham

The strongest storm to pass near Hingham was Edna in 1954, a Category 2 hurricane with 106 mph winds when its centre passed 46 miles away. The closest pass by a hurricane was Bob in 1991, whose centre came within 5 miles. The record near Hingham begins with an unnamed storm in 1851; the most recent system was Ida in 2021, a tropical storm 74 miles away. Of the 50 systems, 7 have come since 2000. Hingham has more hurricanes within 75 miles than 71% of the 346 Massachusetts cities on this site. The strongest of the 33 tornadoes within 25 miles was an F3 on June 9, 1953; its path came within 20 miles. The deadliest, an F1 on August 9, 1972, killed 1 person. Of the 33, one had a path within 5 miles of the city centre, and 9 have come since 2000. July has had the most tornadoes, 10. The most recent tornado was on August 18, 2023. Of the 346 Massachusetts cities, 72% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than Hingham. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 37 times since 1956, with stones up to 2 inches (hen egg size). Of the 346 Massachusetts cities, 73% have more hail reports within 10 miles than Hingham.

Compare Hingham's storm record with another city →

Tropical storms and hurricanes near Hingham

Tropical systems that passed within 75 miles of Hingham, Massachusetts, newest first
YearStormClosestStrength when closestPeak
2021IdaSep 274 miTropical storm (46 mph)Category 4
2021ElsaJul 97 miTropical storm (52 mph)Category 1
2013AndreaJun 810 miTropical storm (46 mph)Tropical storm
2008HannaSep 75 miTropical storm (52 mph)Category 1
2007BarryJun 42 miTropical storm (40 mph)Tropical storm
2006BerylJul 2175 miTropical storm (51 mph)Tropical storm
2004HermineAug 3150 miTropical storm (40 mph)Tropical storm
1999FloydSep 1740 miTropical storm (55 mph)Category 4
1996JosephineOct 967 miTropical storm (52 mph)Tropical storm
1996BerthaJul 1429 miTropical storm (68 mph)Category 3
1991BobAug 195 miCategory 1 (89 mph)Category 3
1985GloriaSep 2774 miCategory 1 (79 mph)Category 4
1966AlmaJun 1425 miTropical storm (46 mph)Category 3
1961EstherSep 2639 miTropical storm (54 mph)Category 5
1961Unnamed 1961 stormSep 1540 miTropical storm (66 mph)Tropical storm
1960DonnaSep 1234 miCategory 1 (74 mph)Category 4
1960BrendaJul 3056 miTropical storm (47 mph)Tropical storm
1959CindyJul 1131 miTropical storm (58 mph)Category 1
1954EdnaSep 1146 miCategory 2 (106 mph)Category 3
1954CarolAug 3140 miCategory 2 (101 mph)Category 3
1944Unnamed 1944 stormSep 156 miCategory 1 (74 mph)Category 5
1934Unnamed 1934 stormSep 959 miTropical storm (48 mph)Category 2
1934Unnamed 1934 stormJun 2048 miTropical storm (47 mph)Category 2
1923Unnamed 1923 stormOct 191 miTropical storm (53 mph)Tropical storm
1916Unnamed 1916 stormJul 215 miTropical storm (60 mph)Category 2
1916Unnamed 1916 stormMay 1731 miTropical storm (58 mph)Tropical storm
1915Unnamed 1915 stormAug 549 miTropical storm (40 mph)Category 1
1908Unnamed 1908 stormMay 3123 miTropical storm (40 mph)Category 1
1907Unnamed 1907 stormJun 3025 miTropical storm (40 mph)Tropical storm
1904Unnamed 1904 stormSep 1531 miCategory 1 (86 mph)Category 1
1902Unnamed 1902 stormJun 1711 miTropical storm (40 mph)Tropical storm
1897Unnamed 1897 stormSep 2425 miTropical storm (45 mph)Tropical storm
1896Unnamed 1896 stormSep 1012 miTropical storm (62 mph)Category 3
1894Unnamed 1894 stormOct 1041 miTropical storm (61 mph)Category 3
1889Unnamed 1889 stormSep 2548 miTropical storm (40 mph)Category 2
1888Unnamed 1888 stormSep 2665 miCategory 1 (79 mph)Category 1
1888Unnamed 1888 stormSep 124 miTropical storm (40 mph)Tropical storm
1888Unnamed 1888 stormAug 22overheadTropical storm (48 mph)Category 3
1880Unnamed 1880 stormOct 2363 miTropical storm (69 mph)Tropical storm
1879Unnamed 1879 stormAug 1945 miCategory 1 (78 mph)Category 3
1878Unnamed 1878 stormOct 2440 miTropical storm (58 mph)Category 2
1877Unnamed 1877 stormOct 548 miTropical storm (61 mph)Category 3
1874Unnamed 1874 stormSep 3049 miTropical storm (69 mph)Category 1
1872Unnamed 1872 stormOct 2720 miTropical storm (46 mph)Category 1
1869Unnamed 1869 stormOct 429 miCategory 2 (104 mph)Category 2
1869Unnamed 1869 stormSep 822 miCategory 2 (100 mph)Category 3
1861Unnamed 1861 stormNov 320 miTropical storm (58 mph)Category 1
1861Unnamed 1861 stormSep 2842 miTropical storm (58 mph)Category 1
1858Unnamed 1858 stormSep 1634 miCategory 1 (75 mph)Category 2
1851Unnamed 1851 stormOct 1940 miTropical storm (46 mph)Tropical storm

Strength is the sustained wind on the track at the closest point, which is not the wind felt in Hingham: a hurricane's worst winds sit within a few dozen miles of its centre, and inland cities are usually past that.

Tornadoes within 25 miles of Hingham

By decade

  • 2020s5
  • 2010s4
  • 1990s2
  • 1980s6
  • 1970s5
  • 1960s5
  • 1950s6(1 EF3+)
Strongest tornadoes near Hingham, Massachusetts
DateRatingDistancePathKilled / injured
Jun 9, 1953F320 mi28 mi0 / 17
Jul 28, 2014EF214 mi1.93 mi0 / 2
Nov 18, 1967F218 mi0.1 mi0 / 0
Aug 25, 1958F222 mi1 mi0 / 0
Nov 21, 1956F215 mi0.1 mi0 / 0
Aug 9, 1972F117 mi4.9 mi1 / 6
Aug 18, 2023EF15 mi0.35 mi0 / 0
Aug 18, 2023EF125 mi7.6 mi0 / 0
Jul 29, 2023EF119 mi0.16 mi0 / 0
Oct 23, 2018EF123 mi0.8 mi0 / 0
Jul 10, 1989F112 mi0.1 mi0 / 1
Sep 16, 1986F18 mi0.1 mi0 / 0

The strongest 12 of 33, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.

Hail in Hingham

The Storm Prediction Center has 37 hail reports within 10 miles of Hingham since 1956, made on 24 separate days. Of these, 14 were 1 inch across or larger, and one reached 2 inches. The largest, 2 inches (hen egg size), fell on July 2, 2004. The most recent report is from August 14, 2025. June has the most reports, 12.

Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.

Weather by month in Hingham

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Hingham, MA, 1 mile west of Hingham at 35 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 83°F and low of 63°F; January is the coolest, at 38°F and 22°F. March is the wettest at 5.4 inches of precipitation on average and July the driest at 3.6 inches; the year adds up to 52.3 inches over 84 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 48% of the year's precipitation (24.9 of 52.3 inches); the other six months are wetter. September has brought the most of the 50 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (20); a normal September there has highs of 74°F and 3.9 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 115 nights a year. Snowfall averages 50.9 inches a year, most of it in January. That 52.3 inches is more than at 56 of the 65 Massachusetts stations used on this site (86%). Abington, 8 miles southwest, has its own station (Brockton, MA): 50.2 inches a year, 2.1 less than here, and a July average high of 84°F against 83°F.

Sea level at the Boston tide gauge, 12 miles from Hingham, has risen 1.17 ± 0.03 inches per decade from 1921 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 11.7 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 68 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Monthly climate normals 1991–2020 at Hingham, MA
MonthHigh °FLow °FPrecip. inDays ≥ 0.1"Snow in
Jan38224.5714.8
Feb40234.0714.5
Mar47295.4710.3
Apr58384.681.7
May69483.870.0
Jun77574.070.0
Jul83633.660.0
Aug82623.860.0
Sep74553.960.0
Oct63445.270.1
Nov52354.470.7
Dec43275.188.8
Year604252.38450.9

Averages for 1991–2020 at Hingham, MA (35 ft), from NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals. Normals describe the station; the farther a place is from it, and the bigger the difference in height, the more its weather can differ.

Massachusetts weather by month, station by station →

Floods, thunderstorm wind and lightning near Hingham

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 191 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Hingham: 107 thunderstorm wind reports, 42 floods, 22 lightning strikes and 20 flash floods. They killed 2 people and injured 11, and the NWS estimated $17.6 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 104 mph, on June 22, 1997. July has had the most flash floods, 13 of 20. Of the 339 Massachusetts cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 181 have had fewer than Hingham.

  • June 22, 1997: thunderstorm wind 5 miles from the centre of Hingham — 1 killed.

  • August 5, 2010: lightning strike 10 miles from the centre of Hingham — 1 killed.

  • June 5, 2010: lightning strike 10 miles from the centre of Hingham — 3 injured.

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, events whose starting point is on record, 1996 to June 30, 2026. Damage is the NWS estimate in the dollars of the year, not insured losses, and NWS notes that some reports are unverified.

Flood insurance claims, disaster declarations and FEMA risk ratings

Flood insurance policyholders in Hingham's ZIP code 02043 have filed 140 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $1.3 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1978: 38 claims (27% of all) and $230,000, then The "Halloween" Storm in 1991 with 17 and Not a named storm in 1979 with 12. The year with the most claims was 2018, with 17. 59% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 229 Massachusetts cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 178 have fewer than Hingham.

Flood insurance claims in Hingham by named event
EventClaimsPaid
Flooding197838$230,000
The "Halloween" Storm199117$117,000
Not a named storm197912$24,000

Plymouth County, which includes Hingham, has been named in 32 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1972, 21 of them major disasters (by incident: 9 hurricanes, 7 severe storms, 6 snowstorms, 5 floods). The latest major disaster declaration was Severe Winter Storm and Snowstorm, on April 18, 2022. FEMA's National Risk Index gives Plymouth County a Relatively Moderate rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Very High for coastal flooding; Relatively High for strong wind and lightning; Relatively Moderate for hurricanes, inland flooding and heat waves; Relatively Low for tornadoes; Very Low for hail. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $114.3 million a year, the 6th highest of 14 Massachusetts counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $71.4 million (62%), is from inland flooding.

Claims: FEMA, OpenFEMA Dataset FIMA NFIP Redacted Claims – v3, summed over ZIP codes; payments in the dollars of each year, not adjusted for inflation. Declarations: Disaster Declarations Summaries – v2, by county. Retrieved October 25, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

Risk ratings: FEMA, National Risk Index county table, December 2025 (v1.20), retrieved October 26, 2026; ratings compare counties nationwide, are meant for planning and are no substitute for a local risk assessment. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Risk Index dataset API or downloadable datasets but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

What counts as a pass, the distances and the sources: how this storm history is built.

Cities near Hingham