Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Melrose, MA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Reading, MA, 6 miles northwest of Melrose at 110 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 84°F and low of 63°F; January is the coolest, at 38°F and 19°F. December is the wettest at 5.0 inches of precipitation on average and August the driest at 3.5 inches; the year adds up to 49.9 inches over 84 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 49% of the year's precipitation (24.4 of 49.9 inches); the other six months are wetter. September has brought the most of the 47 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (18); a normal September there has highs of 75°F and 3.9 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 12 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 134 nights a year. Snowfall averages 63.5 inches a year, most of it in January. That 49.9 inches is more than at 47 of the 65 Massachusetts stations used on this site (72%). Malden, 2 miles south, has its own station (Boston Logan International Airport, MA): 43.7 inches a year, 6.2 less than here, and a July average high of 82°F against 84°F.

Sea level at the Boston tide gauge, 7 miles from Melrose, 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.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 557 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Melrose: 334 thunderstorm wind reports, 134 floods, 53 flash floods and 36 lightning strikes. They killed 1 person and injured 15, and the NWS estimated $45.5 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 90 mph, on July 11, 2006. July has had the most flash floods, 30 of 53. Of the 339 Massachusetts cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 307 have had fewer than Melrose.

Flood insurance policyholders in Melrose's ZIP code 02176 have filed 96 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $903,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1998: 31 claims (32% of all) and $117,000, then March 2010 Nor'easter in 2010 with 11. The year with the most claims was 2006, with 24. 51% 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, 162 have fewer than Melrose.