Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Ocean City, NJ

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Atlantic City, NJ, 12 miles northeast of Ocean City at 10 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 80°F and low of 71°F; January is the coolest, at 42°F and 30°F. March and October are the wettest at 4.3 inches of precipitation on average and January and May the driest at 3.1 inches; the year adds up to 43.8 inches over 70 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 51% of the year's precipitation (22.4 of 43.8 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 62 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (26); a normal September there has highs of 74°F and 3.6 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 6 days a year, almost all from July to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 56 nights a year. That 43.8 inches is more than at 5 of the 51 New Jersey stations used on this site (10%). Marmora, 3 miles west, has its own station (Estell Manor, NJ): 50.4 inches a year, 6.6 more than here, and a July average high of 87°F against 80°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Atlantic City, NJ, 11 miles northeast, averaged 72°F in September and 40°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Atlantic City tide gauge, 11 miles from Ocean City, has risen 1.67 ± 0.03 inches per decade from 1911 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 16.7 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 104 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 77 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Ocean City: 30 thunderstorm wind reports, 14 floods, 13 flash floods, 11 heavy rain events and 9 lightning strikes. They killed 0 people and injured 2, and the NWS estimated $5.6 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 90 mph, on October 14, 2003. July has had the most flash floods, 9 of 13. Of the 455 New Jersey cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 30 have had fewer than Ocean City.

Flood insurance policyholders in Ocean City's ZIP code 08226 have filed 9,482 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $183.8 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Sandy in 2012: 5,344 claims (56% of all) and $157.3 million, then Flooding in 1984 with 1,518 and December Storm - Nor'easter in 1992 with 1,256. 93% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 395 New Jersey cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 393 have fewer than Ocean City.