Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Milford, DE

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Greenwood 2NE, DE, 11 miles southwest of Milford at 45 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 87°F and low of 67°F; January is the coolest, at 44°F and 25°F. September is the wettest at 4.8 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.9 inches; the year adds up to 46.3 inches over 75 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 54% of the year's precipitation (24.9 of 46.3 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 54 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (20); a normal September there has highs of 79°F and 4.8 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 22 days a year, almost all from May to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 96 nights a year. Snowfall averages 12.8 inches a year, most of it in February. That 46.3 inches is more than at 4 of the 11 Delaware stations used on this site (36%). Frederica, 8 miles north, has its own station (Dover, DE): 47.7 inches a year, 1.4 more than here, and the same July average high, 87°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Lewes, DE, 19 miles southeast, 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, 19 miles from Milford, 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 110 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Milford: 52 thunderstorm wind reports, 36 heavy rain events, 11 floods, 7 flash floods and 4 lightning strikes. They killed 0 people and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $320,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 81 mph, on July 1, 2021. August has had the most flash floods, 5 of 7. Of the 37 Delaware cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 2 have had fewer than Milford.

Flood insurance policyholders in Milford's ZIP code 19963 have filed 166 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 Flooding in 1992: 49 claims (30% of all) and $449,000, then Hurricane Sandy in 2012 with 13. The year with the most claims was 1998, with 23. 43% 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, 16 have fewer than Milford.