Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Morehead City, NC

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Morehead City 2 WNW, NC, 1 mile east of Morehead City at 10 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 86°F and low of 74°F; January is the coolest, at 55°F and 36°F. September is the wettest at 8.8 inches of precipitation on average and April the driest at 3.6 inches; the year adds up to 61.2 inches over 84 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 60% of the year's precipitation (36.7 of 61.2 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 132 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (44); a normal September there has highs of 82°F and 8.8 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 11 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 36 nights a year. Snowfall averages 0.5 inches a year, most of it in January. That 61.2 inches is more than at 127 of the 140 North Carolina stations used on this site (91%). Atlantic Beach, 3 miles southwest, has its own station (Atlantic Beach Wtp, NC): 59.0 inches a year, 2.2 less than here, and the same July average high, 86°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Beaufort, Duke Marine Lab, NC, 5 miles east, averaged 84°F in July and 51°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from July to August. Sea level at the Beaufort tide gauge, 5 miles from Morehead City, has risen 1.43 ± 0.07 inches per decade from 1953 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 14.3 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 86 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 129 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Morehead City: 96 thunderstorm wind reports, 19 flash floods, 10 floods, 3 heavy rain events and 1 lightning strike. None is recorded as killing or injuring anyone; the NWS estimated $148,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 82 mph, on May 30, 2017. August has had the most flash floods, 10 of 19. Of the 472 North Carolina cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 270 have had fewer than Morehead City.

Flood insurance policyholders in Morehead City's ZIP code 28557 have filed 687 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $9.8 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Florence in 2018: 238 claims (35% of all) and $6.9 million, then Hurricane Ophelia in 2005 with 92 and Hurricane Fran in 1996 with 73. 85% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 263 North Carolina cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 229 have fewer than Morehead City.