Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Port Richey, FL

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Tarpon Spgs Sewage Plt, FL, 11 miles south of Port Richey at 6 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 91°F and low of 76°F; January is the coolest, at 69°F and 51°F. August is the wettest at 9.7 inches of precipitation on average and November the driest at 1.9 inches; the year adds up to 54.4 inches over 72 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 70% of the year's precipitation (38.0 of 54.4 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 75 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (27); a normal September there has highs of 89°F and 7.0 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 95 days a year, almost all from April to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 2 nights a year. That 54.4 inches is more than at 65 of the 125 Florida stations used on this site (52%). Hudson, 5 miles northeast, has its own station (Brooksville Hernando Co Airport, FL): 52.1 inches a year, 2.3 less than here, and the same August average high, 91°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Clearwater Beach, FL, 24 miles south, averaged 90°F in July and 64°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from May to September. Sea level at the Clearwater Beach tide gauge, 24 miles from Port Richey, has risen 1.72 ± 0.10 inches per decade from 1973 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 17.2 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 109 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 99 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Port Richey: 67 thunderstorm wind reports, 15 heavy rain events, 10 floods and 7 lightning strikes. They killed 1 person and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $101.6 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 72 mph, on January 19, 2008.

Flood insurance policyholders in Port Richey's ZIP code 34668 have filed 2,305 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1985, and were paid $108.4 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Helene in 2024: 663 claims (29% of all) and $66.9 million, then Blizzard of 1993 in 1993 with 558 and Hurricane Josephine in 1996 with 178. 82% 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, 289 have fewer than Port Richey.