Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Nahant, MA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Marblehead, MA, 6 miles northeast of Nahant at 84 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 80°F and low of 61°F; January is the coolest, at 36°F and 18°F. October is the wettest at 5.0 inches of precipitation on average and August the driest at 3.3 inches; the year adds up to 48.2 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 (23.7 of 48.2 inches); the other six months are wetter. September has brought the most of the 47 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (19); a normal September there has highs of 72°F and 3.6 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 9 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 108 nights a year. Snowfall averages 39.1 inches a year, most of it in January. That 48.2 inches is more than at 31 of the 65 Massachusetts stations used on this site (48%). Revere, 4 miles west, has its own station (Boston Logan International Airport, MA): 43.7 inches a year, 4.5 less than here, and a July average high of 82°F against 80°F.

Sea level at the Boston tide gauge, 8 miles from Nahant, 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 372 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Nahant: 214 thunderstorm wind reports, 94 floods, 38 flash floods and 26 lightning strikes. They killed 2 people and injured 12, and the NWS estimated $34.9 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 104 mph, on June 22, 1997. July has had the most flash floods, 20 of 38. Of the 339 Massachusetts cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 287 have had fewer than Nahant.

Flood insurance policyholders in Nahant's ZIP code 01908 have filed 417 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $5.8 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from The "Halloween" Storm in 1991: 112 claims (27% of all) and $2.9 million, then Flooding in 1978 with 92 and Not a named storm in 1979 with 44. 72% 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, 218 have fewer than Nahant.