Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Ridgewood, NY

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is New York Laguardia Airport, NY, 5 miles north of Ridgewood at 11 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 86°F and low of 72°F; January is the coolest, at 40°F and 29°F. August is the wettest at 4.4 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.9 inches; the year adds up to 45.4 inches over 75 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 52% of the year's precipitation (23.6 of 45.4 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 46 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (21); a normal September there has highs of 77°F and 3.9 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 22 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 62 nights a year. Snowfall averages 29.8 inches a year, most of it in February. That 45.4 inches is more than at 85 of the 137 New York stations used on this site (62%). Woodhaven, 2 miles southeast, has its own station (New York Jfk International Airport, NY): 43.5 inches a year, 1.9 less than here, and a July average high of 84°F against 86°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station The Battery, NY, 6 miles west, 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, 6 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 616 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Ridgewood: 290 thunderstorm wind reports, 254 flash floods, 45 floods, 22 lightning strikes and 5 heavy rain events. They killed 21 people and injured 56, and the NWS estimated $122.6 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 125 mph, on September 16, 2010. July has had the most flash floods, 70 of 254. Of the 798 New York cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 780 have had fewer than Ridgewood.

Flood insurance policyholders in Ridgewood's ZIP code 11385 have filed 19 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $299,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. 42% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 549 New York cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 104 have fewer than Ridgewood.