Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Panama City Beach, FL

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Panama City 5N, FL, 10 miles east of Panama City Beach at 5 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 91°F and low of 75°F; January is the coolest, at 64°F and 43°F. July and August are the wettest at 7.4 inches of precipitation on average and May the driest at 3.3 inches; the year adds up to 61.3 inches over 77 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 57% of the year's precipitation (34.8 of 61.3 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 71 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (24); a normal September there has highs of 89°F and 7.0 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 67 days a year, almost all from May to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 16 nights a year. That 61.3 inches is more than at 98 of the 125 Florida stations used on this site (78%). Santa Rosa Beach, 25 miles northwest, has its own station (Destin Fort Walton Airport, FL): 55.4 inches a year, 5.9 less than here, and the same July average high, 91°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Panama City Beach, FL, 4 miles west, averaged 87°F in August and 60°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from June to September. Sea level at the Panama City Beach tide gauge, 4 miles from Panama City Beach, has risen 1.91 ± 0.15 inches per decade from 1989 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 19.1 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 116 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 173 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Panama City Beach: 83 thunderstorm wind reports, 68 flash floods, 10 floods, 9 lightning strikes and 3 heavy rain events. They killed 4 people and injured 2, and the NWS estimated $10.0 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 81 mph, on May 8, 2006. September has had the most flash floods, 15 of 68. Of the 277 Florida cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 273 have had fewer than Panama City Beach.

Flood insurance policyholders in Panama City Beach's 3 ZIP codes have filed 4,093 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $139.6 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Opal in 1995: 1,742 claims (43% of all) and $98.2 million, then Hurricane Michael in 2018 with 266 and Hurricane Ivan in 2004 with 190. 74% 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, 314 have fewer than Panama City Beach.