Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Ridgewood, NJ

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Teterboro Airport, NJ, 10 miles south of Ridgewood at 9 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 87°F and low of 69°F; January is the coolest, at 40°F and 26°F. July is the wettest at 4.5 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.8 inches; the year adds up to 46.4 inches over 76 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 52% of the year's precipitation (24.2 of 46.4 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 45 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (20); a normal September there has highs of 78°F and 4.1 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 29 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 89 nights a year. That 46.4 inches is more than at 15 of the 51 New Jersey stations used on this site (29%). Ho Ho Kus, 1 mile northeast, has its own station (Wanaque Raymond Dam, NJ): 48.5 inches a year, 2.1 more than here, and a July average high of 84°F against 87°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station The Battery, NY, 20 miles south, averaged 74°F in August and 39°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the The Battery tide gauge, 20 miles from Ridgewood, has risen 1.16 ± 0.02 inches per decade from 1856 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 11.6 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 66 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 856 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Ridgewood: 375 thunderstorm wind reports, 317 flash floods, 117 floods, 44 lightning strikes and 3 heavy rain events. They killed 8 people and injured 28, and the NWS estimated $66.1 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 110 mph, on October 7, 2013. July has had the most flash floods, 108 of 317. Of the 455 New Jersey cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 386 have had fewer than Ridgewood.

Flood insurance policyholders in Ridgewood's ZIP code 07450 have filed 414 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $6.4 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Floyd in 1999: 133 claims (32% of all) and $2.3 million, then Hurricane Irene in 2011 with 130 and Hurricane Ida in 2021 with 49. The year with the most claims was 2011, with 148. 89% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 395 New Jersey cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 317 have fewer than Ridgewood.