Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Portland, ME

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Portland International Jetport, ME, 2 miles southwest of Portland at 45 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 80°F and low of 61°F; January is the coolest, at 32°F and 16°F. October is the wettest at 5.3 inches of precipitation on average and July the driest at 3.4 inches; the year adds up to 48.3 inches over 80 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 51% of the year's precipitation (24.6 of 48.3 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 36 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (16); a normal September there has highs of 71°F and 3.8 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 5 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 144 nights a year. Snowfall averages 68.7 inches a year, most of it in January. That 48.3 inches is more than at 25 of the 47 Maine stations used on this site (53%). Cumberland, 9 miles north, has its own station (Gray, ME): 50.1 inches a year, 1.8 more than here, and a July average high of 79°F against 80°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Portland, ME, 2 miles southeast, averaged 63°F in August and 36°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Portland tide gauge, 2 miles from Portland, has risen 0.78 ± 0.03 inches per decade from 1912 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 7.8 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 37 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 151 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Portland: 104 thunderstorm wind reports, 32 floods, 14 flash floods and 1 lightning strike. They killed 0 people and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $12.1 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 86 mph, on July 24, 2012. August has had the most flash floods, 5 of 14. Of the 154 Maine cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 138 have had fewer than Portland.

Flood insurance policyholders in Portland's 3 ZIP codes have filed 65 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $1.4 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The year with the most claims was 1996, with 12. 17% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 61 Maine cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 46 have fewer than Portland.