Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Palm Beach, FL

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is West Palm Beach International Airport, FL, 4 miles southwest of Palm Beach at 19 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 90°F and low of 77°F; January is the coolest, at 75°F and 58°F. August is the wettest at 8.7 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.6 inches; the year adds up to 61.8 inches over 86 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 65% of the year's precipitation (40.3 of 61.8 inches); the other six months are drier. October has brought the most of the 84 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (27); a normal October there has highs of 85°F and 5.9 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 74 days a year, almost all from April to October. A night below freezing comes less than once a year on average. That 61.8 inches is more than at 100 of the 125 Florida stations used on this site (80%). Riviera Beach, 5 miles north, has its own station (Juno Beach, FL): 72.4 inches a year, 10.6 more than here, and an August average high of 91°F against 90°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Lake Worth Pier, Atlantic Ocean, FL, 7 miles south, averaged 86°F in August and 75°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from May to October. Sea level at the Lake Worth Pier tide gauge, 7 miles from Palm Beach, has risen 1.62 ± 0.10 inches per decade from 1970 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 16.2 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 99 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 118 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Palm Beach: 70 thunderstorm wind reports, 24 floods, 12 lightning strikes, 10 flash floods and 2 heavy rain events. They killed 1 person and injured 5, and the NWS estimated $15.3 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 92 mph, on August 2, 2004. August has had the most flash floods, 4 of 10. Of the 277 Florida cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 181 have had fewer than Palm Beach.

Flood insurance policyholders in Palm Beach's ZIP code 33480 have filed 1,356 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $16.6 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Frances in 2004: 193 claims (14% of all) and $5.3 million, then Flooding in 1979 with 186 and Hurricane Irene in 1999 with 99. 49% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 340 Florida cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 256 have fewer than Palm Beach.