Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Pennington, NJ

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Trenton State College, NJ, 4 miles south of Pennington at 100 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 87°F and low of 65°F; January is the coolest, at 40°F and 23°F. July is the wettest at 4.8 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.8 inches; the year adds up to 47.3 inches over 76 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 53% of the year's precipitation (25.1 of 47.3 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 42 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (15); a normal September there has highs of 78°F and 4.1 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 24 days a year, almost all from May to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 109 nights a year. That 47.3 inches is more than at 19 of the 51 New Jersey stations used on this site (37%). Titusville, 4 miles west, has its own station (Trenton Mercer Co Airport, NJ): 45.7 inches a year, 1.6 less than here, and a July average high of 86°F against 87°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Newbold, PA, 13 miles south, averaged 80°F in July and 37°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from July. Sea level at the Philadelphia tide gauge, 33 miles from Pennington, 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.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 422 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Pennington: 294 thunderstorm wind reports, 55 flash floods, 33 floods, 24 lightning strikes and 16 heavy rain events. They killed 11 people and injured 15, and the NWS estimated $140.7 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 79 mph, on October 4, 2000. August has had the most flash floods, 17 of 55. Of the 455 New Jersey cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 196 have had fewer than Pennington.

Flood insurance policyholders in Pennington's ZIP code 08534 have filed 37 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $1.6 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Ida in 2021: 11 claims (30% of all) and $1.1 million. 68% 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, 113 have fewer than Pennington.