Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Rochester, NH

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Rochester Skyhaven Airport, NH, 4 miles southeast of Rochester at 323 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 82°F and low of 60°F; January is the coolest, at 33°F and 15°F. October is the wettest at 4.4 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.2 inches; the year adds up to 41.2 inches over 76 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 54% of the year's precipitation (22.3 of 41.2 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 38 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (17); a normal September there has highs of 73°F and 3.4 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 11 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 145 nights a year. That 41.2 inches is more than at 8 of the 39 New Hampshire stations used on this site (21%). Barrington, 7 miles south, has its own station (Durham 2 N, NH): 48.0 inches a year, 6.8 more than here, and a July average high of 81°F against 82°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Seavey Island, ME, 20 miles southeast, averaged 64°F in August and 37°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Seavey Island tide gauge, 20 miles from Rochester, has risen 0.87 ± 0.04 inches per decade from 1926 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 8.7 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 48 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 106 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Rochester: 94 thunderstorm wind reports, 7 floods, 3 lightning strikes and 2 flash floods. They killed 1 person and injured 7, and the NWS estimated $1.8 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 69 mph, on July 6, 1999.

Flood insurance policyholders in Rochester's 3 ZIP codes have filed 20 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $98,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. 15% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 60 New Hampshire cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 21 have fewer than Rochester.