Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Nantucket, MA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Nantucket Mem Airport, MA, 2 miles southeast of Nantucket at 45 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 76°F and low of 62°F; January is the coolest, at 40°F and 27°F. October is the wettest at 4.4 inches of precipitation on average and July the driest at 2.7 inches; the year adds up to 40.8 inches over 71 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 50% of the year's precipitation (20.5 of 40.8 inches). September has brought the most of the 67 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (20); a normal September there has highs of 70°F and 3.6 inches of precipitation. Highs of 90°F are rare: fewer than one day a year on average. Lows fall below freezing on about 85 nights a year. That 40.8 inches is more than at 0 of the 65 Massachusetts stations used on this site (0%). Edgartown, 24 miles west, has its own station (Edgartown, MA): 47.6 inches a year, 6.8 more than here, and an August average high of 80°F against 76°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Nantucket Island, MA, under a mile northwest, averaged 75°F in July and 37°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Nantucket Island tide gauge, under a mile from Nantucket, has risen 1.63 ± 0.06 inches per decade from 1965 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 16.3 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 101 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 17 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Nantucket: 9 floods, 5 thunderstorm wind reports and 3 lightning strikes. None is recorded as killing or injuring anyone; the NWS estimated $241,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 62 mph, on August 8, 2019.

Flood insurance policyholders in Nantucket's ZIP code 02554 have filed 535 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $15.3 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from The "Halloween" Storm in 1991: 138 claims (26% of all) and $4.6 million, then December Storm - Nor'easter in 1992 with 82 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012 with 13. 48% 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, 221 have fewer than Nantucket.