Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Plymouth, MA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Plymouth Municipal Airport, MA, 6 miles west of Plymouth at 149 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 82°F and low of 62°F; January is the coolest, at 38°F and 20°F. March is the wettest at 5.0 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.0 inches; the year adds up to 48.1 inches over 81 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 49% of the year's precipitation (23.8 of 48.1 inches); the other six months are wetter. September has brought the most of the 62 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (21); a normal September there has highs of 73°F and 3.8 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 9 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 127 nights a year. That 48.1 inches is more than at 27 of the 65 Massachusetts stations used on this site (42%). East Wareham, 8 miles south, has its own station (E Wareham, MA): 51.3 inches a year, 3.2 more than here, and a July average high of 81°F against 82°F.

Sea level at the Woods Hole tide gauge, 26 miles from Plymouth, has risen 1.24 ± 0.03 inches per decade from 1932 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 50 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Plymouth: 20 thunderstorm wind reports, 15 floods, 7 flash floods, 7 lightning strikes and 1 heavy rain event. They killed 1 person and injured 3, and the NWS estimated $349,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 74 mph, on June 1, 2007. September has had the most flash floods, 4 of 7. Of the 339 Massachusetts cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 69 have had fewer than Plymouth.

Flood insurance policyholders in Plymouth's ZIP code 02360 have filed 290 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $7.8 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from The "Halloween" Storm in 1991: 73 claims (25% of all) and $1.8 million, then Flooding in 1987 with 24 and December Storm - Nor'easter in 1992 with 18. 44% 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, 202 have fewer than Plymouth.