Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Millsboro, DE

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Georgetown Sussex Co Airport, DE, 9 miles northwest of Millsboro at 51 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 88°F and low of 70°F; January is the coolest, at 45°F and 29°F. September is the wettest at 4.5 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.6 inches; the year adds up to 43.9 inches over 73 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 55% of the year's precipitation (24.0 of 43.9 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 63 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (26); a normal September there has highs of 80°F and 4.5 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 30 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 83 nights a year. That 43.9 inches is more than at 2 of the 11 Delaware stations used on this site (18%). Frankford, 7 miles southeast, has its own station (Ocean City Municipal Airport, MD): 42.7 inches a year, 1.2 less than here, and a July average high of 84°F against 88°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Lewes, DE, 14 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, 14 miles from Millsboro, 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 179 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Millsboro: 81 thunderstorm wind reports, 53 heavy rain events, 21 lightning strikes, 19 flash floods and 5 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. July has had the most flash floods, 10 of 19. Of the 37 Delaware cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 22 have had fewer than Millsboro.

Flood insurance policyholders in Millsboro's ZIP code 19966 have filed 325 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1980, and were paid $2.7 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1998: 98 claims (30% of all) and $749,000, then Hurricane Sandy in 2012 with 47. 50% 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, 19 have fewer than Millsboro.