Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Lewes, DE

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Lewes, DE, 3 miles north of Lewes at 10 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 88°F and low of 71°F; January is the coolest, at 46°F and 30°F. July is the wettest at 5.0 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.2 inches; the year adds up to 47.5 inches over 77 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 54% of the year's precipitation (25.6 of 47.5 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 65 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (25); a normal September there has highs of 80°F and 4.5 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 29 days a year, almost all from May to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 59 nights a year. Snowfall averages 10.5 inches a year, most of it in February. That 47.5 inches is more than at 7 of the 11 Delaware stations used on this site (64%). Milton, 7 miles west, has its own station (Georgetown Sussex Co Airport, DE): 43.9 inches a year, 3.6 less than here, and the same July average high, 88°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Lewes, DE, 4 miles northeast, averaged 74°F in August and 40°F in January over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Lewes tide gauge, 4 miles from Lewes, has risen 1.49 ± 0.05 inches per decade from 1919 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 14.9 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 89 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 135 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Lewes: 71 thunderstorm wind reports, 35 heavy rain events, 15 lightning strikes, 8 flash floods and 6 floods. They killed 0 people and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $1.5 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 75 mph, on July 17, 2019. August has had the most flash floods, 4 of 8. Of the 37 Delaware cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 6 have had fewer than Lewes.

Flood insurance policyholders in Lewes's ZIP code 19958 have filed 224 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $1.7 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Sandy in 2012: 52 claims (23% of all) and $644,000, then Flooding in 1998 with 48. 48% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 24 Delaware cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 17 have fewer than Lewes.