Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Princess Anne, MD

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Salisbury, MD, 13 miles northeast of Princess Anne at 10 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 89°F and low of 70°F; January is the coolest, at 47°F and 29°F. August is the wettest at 5.3 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.2 inches; the year adds up to 48.0 inches over 77 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 54% of the year's precipitation (26.0 of 48.0 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 64 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (25); a normal September there has highs of 81°F and 4.3 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 31 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 71 nights a year. That 48.0 inches is more than at 34 of the 41 Maryland stations used on this site (83%). Pocomoke City, 13 miles southeast, has its own station (Wallops Island Flight Fac, VA): 43.3 inches a year, 4.7 less than here, and a July average high of 86°F against 89°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Bishops Head, MD, 18 miles west, averaged 84°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, 32 miles from Princess Anne, 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 108 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Princess Anne: 68 thunderstorm wind reports, 25 heavy rain events, 6 floods, 5 flash floods and 4 lightning strikes. They killed 0 people and injured 2, and the NWS estimated $746,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 70 mph, on August 26, 2003. August has had the most flash floods, 2 of 5. Of the 239 Maryland cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 4 have had fewer than Princess Anne.

Flood insurance policyholders in Princess Anne's ZIP code 21853 have filed 96 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $1.1 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Sandy in 2012: 48 claims (50% of all) and $652,000, then Hurricane Isabel in 2003 with 16. 78% 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, 109 have fewer than Princess Anne.