Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Ocean City, MD

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Ocean City Municipal Airport, MD, 6 miles southwest of Ocean City at 12 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 84°F and low of 68°F; January is the coolest, at 45°F and 28°F. October is the wettest at 4.0 inches of precipitation on average and February and April the driest at 3.0 inches; the year adds up to 42.7 inches over 70 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 52% of the year's precipitation (22.0 of 42.7 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 75 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (31); a normal September there has highs of 77°F and 3.9 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 13 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 81 nights a year. That 42.7 inches is more than at 7 of the 41 Maryland stations used on this site (17%). Ocean View, DE, 11 miles north, has its own station (Lewes, DE): 47.5 inches a year, 4.8 more than here, and a July average high of 88°F against 84°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Ocean City Inlet, MD, 4 miles south, averaged 74°F in September and 41°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Ocean City tide gauge, 4 miles from Ocean City, has risen 2.07 ± 0.14 inches per decade from 1975 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 20.7 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 121 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 157 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Ocean City: 64 thunderstorm wind reports, 54 heavy rain events, 24 flash floods, 9 floods and 6 lightning strikes. None is recorded as killing or injuring anyone; the NWS estimated $558,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 85 mph, on August 17, 1997. July has had the most flash floods, 12 of 24. Of the 239 Maryland cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 83 have had fewer than Ocean City.

Flood insurance policyholders in Ocean City's ZIP code 21842 have filed 1,913 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $14.0 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Sandy in 2012: 494 claims (26% of all) and $5.8 million, then Hurricane Gloria in 1985 with 329 and Flooding in 1998 with 238. 57% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 150 Maryland cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 148 have fewer than Ocean City.