Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Reading, MA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Reading, MA, in Reading at 110 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 84°F and low of 63°F; January is the coolest, at 38°F and 19°F. December is the wettest at 5.0 inches of precipitation on average and August the driest at 3.5 inches; the year adds up to 49.9 inches over 84 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 49% of the year's precipitation (24.4 of 49.9 inches); the other six months are wetter. September has brought the most of the 48 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (18); a normal September there has highs of 75°F and 3.9 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 12 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 134 nights a year. Snowfall averages 63.5 inches a year, most of it in January. That 49.9 inches is more than at 47 of the 65 Massachusetts stations used on this site (72%). North Reading, 4 miles north, has its own station (Middleton, MA): 48.2 inches a year, 1.7 less than here, and a July average high of 81°F against 84°F.

Sea level at the Boston tide gauge, 12 miles from Reading, has risen 1.17 ± 0.03 inches per decade from 1921 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 11.7 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 68 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 415 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Reading: 245 thunderstorm wind reports, 110 floods, 36 flash floods and 24 lightning strikes. They killed 0 people and injured 4, and the NWS estimated $13.7 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 100 mph, on July 7, 2014. July has had the most flash floods, 18 of 36. Of the 339 Massachusetts cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 280 have had fewer than Reading.

Flood insurance policyholders in Reading's ZIP code 01867 have filed 19 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $52,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. 63% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 229 Massachusetts cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 56 have fewer than Reading.