Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Ocean View, DE

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Lewes, DE, 17 miles north of Ocean View at 10 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 88°F and low of 71°F; January is the coolest, at 46°F and 30°F. July is the wettest at 5.0 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.2 inches; the year adds up to 47.5 inches over 77 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 54% of the year's precipitation (25.6 of 47.5 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 68 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (28); a normal September there has highs of 80°F and 4.5 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 29 days a year, almost all from May to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 59 nights a year. Snowfall averages 10.5 inches a year, most of it in February. That 47.5 inches is more than at 7 of the 11 Delaware stations used on this site (64%). Millville, under a mile southwest, has its own station (Ocean City Municipal Airport, MD): 42.7 inches a year, 4.8 less than here, and a July average high of 84°F against 88°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Ocean City Inlet, MD, 15 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, 15 miles from Ocean View, 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 144 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Ocean View: 71 thunderstorm wind reports, 25 heavy rain events, 24 flash floods, 15 lightning strikes and 9 floods. They killed 0 people and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $468,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 86 mph, on July 19, 2002. July has had the most flash floods, 11 of 24. Of the 37 Delaware cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 24 have had fewer than Ocean View.

Flood insurance policyholders in Ocean View's ZIP code 19970 have filed 155 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1989, and were paid $1.4 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Sandy in 2012: 53 claims (34% of all) and $787,000, then Flooding in 1998 with 30. 54% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 24 Delaware cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 15 have fewer than Ocean View.