Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Portsmouth, VA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Norfolk S, VA, 7 miles east of Portsmouth at 10 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 88°F and low of 71°F; January is the coolest, at 49°F and 32°F. August is the wettest at 6.6 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.2 inches; the year adds up to 53.6 inches over 80 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 58% of the year's precipitation (31.3 of 53.6 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 89 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (37); a normal September there has highs of 80°F and 6.2 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 35 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 51 nights a year. That 53.6 inches is more than at 106 of the 109 Virginia stations used on this site (97%). Suffolk, 12 miles west, has its own station (Suffolk Lake Kilby, VA): 52.1 inches a year, 1.5 less than here, and a July average high of 87°F against 88°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Money Point, VA, 5 miles southeast, averaged 82°F in July and 46°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from July to August. Sea level at the Sewells Point tide gauge, 8 miles from Portsmouth, has risen 1.90 ± 0.04 inches per decade from 1927 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 19.0 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 115 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 489 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Portsmouth: 229 thunderstorm wind reports, 117 heavy rain events, 108 flash floods, 28 floods and 7 lightning strikes. They killed 4 people and injured 10, and the NWS estimated $95.7 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 92 mph, on July 26, 2022. August has had the most flash floods, 28 of 108. Of the 364 Virginia cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 339 have had fewer than Portsmouth.

Flood insurance policyholders in Portsmouth's 5 ZIP codes have filed 1,744 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $19.7 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from November 2009 Nor'easter in 2009: 345 claims (20% of all) and $5.0 million, then Hurricane Isabel in 2003 with 328 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016 with 187. 75% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 183 Virginia cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 177 have fewer than Portsmouth.