Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Rockland, MA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Hingham, MA, 7 miles north of Rockland at 35 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 83°F and low of 63°F; January is the coolest, at 38°F and 22°F. March is the wettest at 5.4 inches of precipitation on average and July the driest at 3.6 inches; the year adds up to 52.3 inches over 84 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 48% of the year's precipitation (24.9 of 52.3 inches); the other six months are wetter. September has brought the most of the 50 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (19); a normal September there has highs of 74°F and 3.9 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 13 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 115 nights a year. Snowfall averages 50.9 inches a year, most of it in January. That 52.3 inches is more than at 56 of the 65 Massachusetts stations used on this site (86%). Abington, 2 miles west, has its own station (Brockton, MA): 50.2 inches a year, 2.1 less than here, and a July average high of 84°F against 83°F.

Sea level at the Boston tide gauge, 17 miles from Rockland, has risen 1.17 ± 0.03 inches per decade from 1921 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 11.7 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 68 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 205 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Rockland: 126 thunderstorm wind reports, 40 floods, 24 lightning strikes and 15 flash floods. They killed 0 people and injured 64, and the NWS estimated $21.9 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 104 mph, on May 21, 1996. July has had the most flash floods, 8 of 15. Of the 339 Massachusetts cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 130 have had fewer than Rockland.

Flood insurance policyholders in Rockland's ZIP code 02370 have filed 16 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $102,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. 63% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 229 Massachusetts cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 44 have fewer than Rockland.