Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Preston, MD

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Royal Oak 2 SSW, MD, 15 miles west of Preston at 10 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 88°F and low of 70°F; January is the coolest, at 45°F and 29°F. August is the wettest at 4.8 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.1 inches; the year adds up to 47.7 inches over 79 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 47.7 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 52 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (19); a normal September there has highs of 80°F and 4.2 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 32 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 69 nights a year. Snowfall averages 14.1 inches a year, most of it in January. That 47.7 inches is more than at 31 of the 41 Maryland stations used on this site (76%). Federalsburg, 8 miles east, has its own station (Greenwood 2NE, DE): 46.3 inches a year, 1.4 less than here, and a July average high of 87°F against 88°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Cambridge, MD, 14 miles southwest, averaged 83°F in July and 39°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from July to August. Sea level at the Cambridge tide gauge, 14 miles from Preston, has risen 1.59 ± 0.06 inches per decade from 1943 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 15.9 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 97 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 192 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Preston: 148 thunderstorm wind reports, 15 flash floods, 14 heavy rain events, 10 lightning strikes and 5 floods. They killed 1 person and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $1.8 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 77 mph, on October 7, 2014. August has had the most flash floods, 8 of 15. Of the 239 Maryland cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 43 have had fewer than Preston.

Flood insurance policyholders in Preston's ZIP code 21655 have filed 13 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1980, and were paid $275,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. 69% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 150 Maryland cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 11 have fewer than Preston.