Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Palm Harbor, FL

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Tarpon Spgs Sewage Plt, FL, 5 miles north of Palm Harbor at 6 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 91°F and low of 76°F; January is the coolest, at 69°F and 51°F. August is the wettest at 9.7 inches of precipitation on average and November the driest at 1.9 inches; the year adds up to 54.4 inches over 72 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 70% of the year's precipitation (38.0 of 54.4 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 78 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (29); a normal September there has highs of 89°F and 7.0 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 95 days a year, almost all from April to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 2 nights a year. That 54.4 inches is more than at 65 of the 125 Florida stations used on this site (52%). Safety Harbor, 6 miles southeast, has its own station (St Petersburg International Airport, FL): 53.5 inches a year, 0.9 less than here, and the same August average high, 91°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Clearwater Beach, FL, 9 miles southwest, averaged 90°F in July and 64°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from May to September. Sea level at the Clearwater Beach tide gauge, 9 miles from Palm Harbor, has risen 1.72 ± 0.10 inches per decade from 1973 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 17.2 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 109 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 130 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Palm Harbor: 69 thunderstorm wind reports, 45 lightning strikes, 11 heavy rain events and 5 floods. They killed 2 people and injured 19, and the NWS estimated $95.8 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 78 mph, on December 16, 2007.

Flood insurance policyholders in Palm Harbor's 3 ZIP codes have filed 1,525 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $77.3 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Helene in 2024: 703 claims (46% of all) and $64.8 million, then Blizzard of 1993 in 1993 with 331 and Hurricane Milton in 2024 with 52. 86% 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, 266 have fewer than Palm Harbor.