Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Rockaway Beach, NY

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is New York Jfk International Airport, NY, 4 miles northeast of Rockaway Beach at 11 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 84°F and low of 69°F; January is the coolest, at 40°F and 26°F. August is the wettest at 4.1 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.8 inches; the year adds up to 43.5 inches over 74 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 51% of the year's precipitation (22.3 of 43.5 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 52 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (22); a normal September there has highs of 76°F and 3.6 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 74 nights a year. Snowfall averages 25.9 inches a year, most of it in February. That 43.5 inches is more than at 66 of the 137 New York stations used on this site (48%). Breezy Point, 5 miles southwest, has its own station (Ny Ave V Brooklyn, NY): 47.1 inches a year, 3.6 more than here, and a July average high of 85°F against 84°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station The Battery, NY, 13 miles northwest, 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, 13 miles from Rockaway Beach, 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 307 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Rockaway Beach: 145 thunderstorm wind reports, 112 flash floods, 29 floods, 19 lightning strikes and 2 heavy rain events. They killed 7 people and injured 28, and the NWS estimated $686,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 125 mph, on September 16, 2010. September has had the most flash floods, 30 of 112. Of the 798 New York cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 668 have had fewer than Rockaway Beach.

Flood insurance policyholders in Rockaway Beach's ZIP code 11693 have filed 1,605 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $89.9 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Sandy in 2012: 804 claims (50% of all) and $82.1 million, then December Storm - Nor'easter in 1992 with 236 and Hurricane Irene in 2011 with 149. 88% 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, 521 have fewer than Rockaway Beach.