Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Oriental, NC

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Bayboro 3 SW, NC, 9 miles northwest of Oriental at 5 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 88°F and low of 71°F; January is the coolest, at 55°F and 34°F. August is the wettest at 7.9 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.5 inches; the year adds up to 58.8 inches over 85 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 60% of the year's precipitation (35.3 of 58.8 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 131 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (49); a normal September there has highs of 82°F and 7.1 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 39 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 43 nights a year. Snowfall averages 1.1 inches a year, most of it in January. That 58.8 inches is more than at 119 of the 140 North Carolina stations used on this site (85%). Cherry Point, 15 miles southwest, has its own station (Cherry Point Mcas, NC): 57.5 inches a year, 1.3 less than here, and a July average high of 90°F against 88°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Beaufort, Duke Marine Lab, NC, 22 miles south, averaged 84°F in July and 51°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from July to August. Sea level at the Beaufort tide gauge, 22 miles from Oriental, has risen 1.43 ± 0.07 inches per decade from 1953 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 14.3 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 86 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 39 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Oriental: 33 thunderstorm wind reports, 4 flash floods, 1 heavy rain event and 1 lightning strike. They killed 0 people and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $6.0 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 81 mph, on April 5, 2026.

Flood insurance policyholders in Oriental's ZIP code 28571 have filed 2,178 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1982, and were paid $46.0 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Florence in 2018: 698 claims (32% of all) and $20.7 million, then Hurricane Irene in 2011 with 641 and Hurricane Isabel in 2003 with 524. 97% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 263 North Carolina cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 248 have fewer than Oriental.