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NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database

Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Paulsboro, NJ

Every tropical system within 75 miles since 1851 and every tornado within 25 miles since 1950.

Data: NOAA NHC HURDAT2 and NOAA SPC tornado and hail reports, through 2025 · Updated

41 tropical systems have passed within 75 miles of Paulsboro, New Jersey since 1851, 5 of them at hurricane strength; the most recent was Ida in 2021. Since 1950, 77 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 4 of them rated EF3 or stronger.

Hurricanes
5

within 75 mi, since 1851

Tropical storms
36

below hurricane strength

Tornadoes
77

within 25 mi, since 1950

EF3 or stronger
4

3 deaths in all

What the records show for Paulsboro

The strongest storm to pass near Paulsboro was Gloria in 1985, a Category 1 hurricane with 92 mph winds when its centre passed 74 miles away. The closest pass by a hurricane was an unnamed storm in 1904, whose centre came within 47 miles. The record near Paulsboro begins with an unnamed storm in 1861; the most recent system was Ida in 2021, a tropical storm 5 miles away. Of the 41 systems, 8 have come since 2000. Of the 455 New Jersey cities on this site, 81% have more hurricanes within 75 miles than Paulsboro. The highest rating among the 77 tornadoes within 25 miles is F3 or EF3, reached 4 times; the most recent, on September 1, 2021, came within 6 miles. The deadliest, an EF2 on September 1, 2021, killed 1 person. Of the 77, 4 had paths within 5 miles of the city centre, and 27 have come since 2000. July has had the most tornadoes, 21. The most recent tornado was on May 16, 2025. Paulsboro has more tornadoes within 25 miles than 90% of the 455 New Jersey cities. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 104 times since 1957, with stones up to 2 inches (hen egg size). Paulsboro has more hail reports within 10 miles than 89% of the 455 New Jersey cities.

Compare Paulsboro's storm record with another city →

Tropical storms and hurricanes near Paulsboro

Tropical systems that passed within 75 miles of Paulsboro, New Jersey, newest first
YearStormClosestStrength when closestPeak
2021IdaSep 25 miTropical storm (41 mph)Category 4
2021ElsaJul 959 miTropical storm (58 mph)Category 1
2020IsaiasAug 421 miTropical storm (64 mph)Category 1
2020FayJul 1047 miTropical storm (46 mph)Tropical storm
2013AndreaJun 865 miTropical storm (46 mph)Tropical storm
2012SandyOct 3011 miTropical storm (72 mph)Category 3
2011IreneAug 2850 miTropical storm (68 mph)Category 3
2008HannaSep 624 miTropical storm (52 mph)Category 1
1999FloydSep 1657 miTropical storm (62 mph)Category 4
1996BerthaJul 1319 miTropical storm (69 mph)Category 3
1992DanielleSep 2639 miTropical storm (40 mph)Tropical storm
1985GloriaSep 2774 miCategory 1 (92 mph)Category 4
1971DoriaAug 2835 miTropical storm (64 mph)Tropical storm
1961Unnamed 1961 stormSep 1556 miTropical storm (60 mph)Tropical storm
1960BrendaJul 3039 miTropical storm (58 mph)Tropical storm
1955DianeAug 1932 miTropical storm (41 mph)Category 2
1952AbleSep 144 miTropical storm (58 mph)Category 2
1944Unnamed 1944 stormAug 357 miTropical storm (40 mph)Category 1
1934Unnamed 1934 stormJun 192 miTropical storm (46 mph)Category 2
1929Unnamed 1929 stormOct 354 miTropical storm (58 mph)Category 4
1924Unnamed 1924 stormSep 3037 miTropical storm (70 mph)Category 1
1916Unnamed 1916 stormMay 1766 miTropical storm (53 mph)Tropical storm
1915Unnamed 1915 stormAug 432 miTropical storm (53 mph)Category 1
1904Unnamed 1904 stormSep 1547 miCategory 1 (76 mph)Category 1
1903Unnamed 1903 stormSep 1620 miTropical storm (70 mph)Category 2
1902Unnamed 1902 stormJun 1667 miTropical storm (45 mph)Tropical storm
1900Unnamed 1900 stormOct 1470 miTropical storm (40 mph)Tropical storm
1899Unnamed 1899 stormNov 135 miTropical storm (58 mph)Category 2
1894Unnamed 1894 stormOct 1072 miCategory 1 (86 mph)Category 3
1893Unnamed 1893 stormAug 2947 miTropical storm (63 mph)Category 3
1893Unnamed 1893 stormAug 2471 miCategory 1 (89 mph)Category 3
1888Unnamed 1888 stormSep 1137 miTropical storm (40 mph)Tropical storm
1888Unnamed 1888 stormAug 2272 miTropical storm (46 mph)Category 3
1882Unnamed 1882 stormSep 2449 miTropical storm (46 mph)Tropical storm
1878Unnamed 1878 stormOct 2363 miCategory 1 (86 mph)Category 2
1877Unnamed 1877 stormOct 540 miTropical storm (69 mph)Category 3
1874Unnamed 1874 stormSep 2927 miTropical storm (62 mph)Category 1
1872Unnamed 1872 stormOct 2624 miTropical storm (46 mph)Category 1
1866Unnamed 1866 stormOct 3054 miTropical storm (64 mph)Tropical storm
1863Unnamed 1863 stormSep 1921 miTropical storm (54 mph)Tropical storm
1861Unnamed 1861 stormSep 2837 miTropical storm (67 mph)Category 1

Strength is the sustained wind on the track at the closest point, which is not the wind felt in Paulsboro: a hurricane's worst winds sit within a few dozen miles of its centre, and inland cities are usually past that.

Tornadoes within 25 miles of Paulsboro

By decade

  • 2020s13(2 EF3+)
  • 2010s9
  • 2000s5
  • 1990s16
  • 1980s14
  • 1970s8
  • 1960s7(1 EF3+)
  • 1950s5(1 EF3+)
Strongest tornadoes near Paulsboro, New Jersey
DateRatingDistancePathKilled / injured
Mar 22, 1955F319 mi9.6 mi1 / 0
Sep 1, 2021EF36 mi12.37 mi0 / 2
Jul 29, 2021EF324 mi3.4 mi0 / 0
Apr 28, 1961F321 mi0.3 mi0 / 0
Sep 1, 2021EF219 mi8.28 mi1 / 2
Aug 4, 2020EF223 mi20.77 mi0 / 18
Oct 31, 2019EF216 mi0.47 mi0 / 2
Sep 28, 2004F220 mi5 mi0 / 0
May 31, 1998F223 mi5.6 mi0 / 0
Oct 18, 1990F219 mi1 mi0 / 0
Jun 9, 1989F29 mi2 mi0 / 1
Jun 9, 1989F224 mi2 mi0 / 1

The strongest 12 of 77, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.

Hail in Paulsboro

The Storm Prediction Center has 104 hail reports within 10 miles of Paulsboro since 1957, made on 64 separate days. Of these, 53 were 1 inch across or larger, and one reached 2 inches. The largest, 2 inches (hen egg size), fell on May 24, 1999. The most recent report is from May 3, 2025. May has the most reports, 30.

Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.

Weather by month in Paulsboro

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Philadelphia International Airport, PA, 3 miles north of Paulsboro at 10 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 88°F and low of 70°F; January is the coolest, at 41°F and 26°F. July and September are the wettest at 4.4 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.8 inches; the year adds up to 44.2 inches over 73 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 53% of the year's precipitation (23.5 of 44.2 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 41 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (15); a normal September there has highs of 79°F and 4.4 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 30 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 77 nights a year. Snowfall averages 23.1 inches a year, most of it in February. That 44.2 inches is more than at 7 of the 51 New Jersey stations used on this site (14%). Eddystone, PA, 6 miles west, has its own station (Marcus Hook, PA): 41.8 inches a year, 2.4 less than here, and a July average high of 89°F against 88°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Philadelphia, PA, 9 miles northeast, averaged 80°F in July and 38°F in February over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from July. Sea level at the Philadelphia tide gauge, 9 miles from Paulsboro, has risen 1.24 ± 0.04 inches per decade from 1900 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 12.4 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 73 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Monthly climate normals 1991–2020 at Philadelphia International Airport, PA
MonthHigh °FLow °FPrecip. inDays ≥ 0.1"Snow inWater °F
Jan41263.167.138
Feb44282.868.438
Mar53344.073.645
Apr65443.560.354
May74543.360.063
Jun83644.070.073
Jul88704.460.080
Aug86684.360.079
Sep79614.460.074
Oct67493.560.065
Nov56392.960.254
Dec46314.073.543
Year654744.27323.159

Averages for 1991–2020 at Philadelphia International Airport, PA (10 ft), from NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals; water temperature: average of hourly readings 2021–2025 at the NOAA tide station Philadelphia, PA, from NOAA Tides & Currents. Normals describe the station; the farther a place is from it, and the bigger the difference in height, the more its weather can differ.

New Jersey weather by month, station by station →

Floods, thunderstorm wind and lightning near Paulsboro

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 736 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Paulsboro: 473 thunderstorm wind reports, 164 flash floods, 66 floods, 20 lightning strikes and 13 heavy rain events. They killed 5 people and injured 28, and the NWS estimated $42.7 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 105 mph, on April 4, 2025. July has had the most flash floods, 49 of 164. Of the 455 New Jersey cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 307 have had fewer than Paulsboro.

  • July 28, 2013: flash flood 7 miles from the centre of Paulsboro — 1 killed, 1 injured.

  • November 15, 2008: thunderstorm wind in Paulsboro — 1 killed.

    NWS: “A 23-year-old man was presumed dead after the boat he was in capsized as a line of showers and thunderstorms moved through the county. He was one of four persons on board who were duck hunting on the Mantua Creek near the Interstate 295 bridge near Paulsboro when the boat overturned.”

  • August 14, 2011: flood 2 miles from the centre of Paulsboro — 1 killed.

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, events whose starting point is on record, 1996 to June 30, 2026. Damage is the NWS estimate in the dollars of the year, not insured losses, and NWS notes that some reports are unverified.

Flood insurance claims, disaster declarations and FEMA risk ratings

Flood insurance policyholders in Paulsboro's ZIP code 08066 have filed 39 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1988, and were paid $75,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The year with the most claims was 2011, with 16. 33% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 395 New Jersey cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 121 have fewer than Paulsboro.

Gloucester County, which includes Paulsboro, has been named in 28 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1965, 17 of them major disasters (by incident: 9 hurricanes, 5 severe storms, 5 snowstorms, 2 biological emergencies). The latest major disaster declaration was Remnants of Hurricane Ida, on September 5, 2021. FEMA's National Risk Index gives Gloucester County a Relatively Moderate rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Relatively High for coastal flooding, strong wind and lightning; Relatively Moderate for hurricanes, tornadoes, inland flooding and heat waves; Relatively Low for hail. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $77.0 million a year, the 16th highest of 21 New Jersey counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $40.0 million (52%), is from inland flooding.

Claims: FEMA, OpenFEMA Dataset FIMA NFIP Redacted Claims – v3, summed over ZIP codes; payments in the dollars of each year, not adjusted for inflation. Declarations: Disaster Declarations Summaries – v2, by county. Retrieved October 25, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

Risk ratings: FEMA, National Risk Index county table, December 2025 (v1.20), retrieved October 26, 2026; ratings compare counties nationwide, are meant for planning and are no substitute for a local risk assessment. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Risk Index dataset API or downloadable datasets but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

What counts as a pass, the distances and the sources: how this storm history is built.

Cities near Paulsboro