Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Peabody, MA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Beverly Municipal Airport, MA, 4 miles northeast of Peabody at 108 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 82°F and low of 62°F; January is the coolest, at 36°F and 20°F. October is the wettest at 4.5 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.9 inches; the year adds up to 44.9 inches over 77 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 51% of the year's precipitation (22.7 of 44.9 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 48 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (18); a normal September there has highs of 73°F and 3.6 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 10 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 126 nights a year. That 44.9 inches is more than at 12 of the 65 Massachusetts stations used on this site (18%). Salem, 3 miles east, has its own station (Marblehead, MA): 48.2 inches a year, 3.3 more than here, and a July average high of 80°F against 82°F.

Sea level at the Boston tide gauge, 13 miles from Peabody, has risen 1.17 ± 0.03 inches per decade from 1921 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 11.7 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 68 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 348 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Peabody: 213 thunderstorm wind reports, 82 floods, 33 flash floods and 20 lightning strikes. They killed 0 people and injured 5, and the NWS estimated $19.2 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 90 mph, on July 11, 2006. July has had the most flash floods, 11 of 33. Of the 339 Massachusetts cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 274 have had fewer than Peabody.

Flood insurance policyholders in Peabody's ZIP code 01960 have filed 369 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $8.0 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1996: 94 claims (25% of all) and $1.3 million, then March 2010 Nor'easter in 2010 with 45 and Not a named storm in 1982 with 29. The year with the most claims was 2006, with 51. 47% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 229 Massachusetts cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 212 have fewer than Peabody.