Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Rehoboth Beach, DE

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Lewes, DE, 6 miles northwest of Rehoboth Beach at 10 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 88°F and low of 71°F; January is the coolest, at 46°F and 30°F. July is the wettest at 5.0 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.2 inches; the year adds up to 47.5 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 (25.6 of 47.5 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 65 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (26); a normal September there has highs of 80°F and 4.5 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 29 days a year, almost all from May to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 59 nights a year. Snowfall averages 10.5 inches a year, most of it in February. That 47.5 inches is more than at 7 of the 11 Delaware stations used on this site (64%). Millsboro, 11 miles southwest, has its own station (Georgetown Sussex Co Airport, DE): 43.9 inches a year, 3.6 less than here, and the same July average high, 88°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Lewes, DE, 5 miles north, averaged 74°F in August and 40°F in January over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Lewes tide gauge, 5 miles from Rehoboth Beach, has risen 1.49 ± 0.05 inches per decade from 1919 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 14.9 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 89 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 130 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Rehoboth Beach: 67 thunderstorm wind reports, 34 heavy rain events, 12 flash floods, 12 lightning strikes and 5 floods. They killed 0 people and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $1.5 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 70 mph, on April 3, 2002. Of the 37 Delaware cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 12 have had fewer than Rehoboth Beach.

Flood insurance policyholders in Rehoboth Beach's ZIP code 19971 have filed 880 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $8.1 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1998: 306 claims (35% of all) and $3.2 million, then Hurricane Sandy in 2012 with 156 and December Storm - Nor'easter in 1992 with 67. The year with the most claims was 1992, with 225. 62% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 24 Delaware cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 21 have fewer than Rehoboth Beach.