Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Ronkonkoma, NY

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Islip Li Macarthur Airport, NY, 2 miles southeast of Ronkonkoma at 84 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 83°F and low of 67°F; January is the coolest, at 39°F and 25°F. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 49% of the year's precipitation (22.5 of 46.1 inches); the other six months are wetter. September has brought the most of the 55 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (22); a normal September there has highs of 75°F and 3.6 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 8 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 98 nights a year. Snowfall averages 31.8 inches a year, most of it in January. That 46.1 inches is more than at 92 of the 137 New York stations used on this site (67%). Medford, 7 miles east, has its own station (Shirley Brookhaven Airport, NY): 44.3 inches a year, 1.8 less than here, and the same July average high, 83°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Bridgeport, CT, 25 miles north, averaged 76°F in August and 39°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Bridgeport tide gauge, 25 miles from Ronkonkoma, has risen 1.35 ± 0.08 inches per decade from 1964 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 13.5 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 81 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 215 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Ronkonkoma: 121 thunderstorm wind reports, 85 flash floods, 6 lightning strikes, 2 floods and 1 heavy rain event. They killed 1 person and injured 2, and the NWS estimated $36.3 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 96 mph, on August 4, 2015. August has had the most flash floods, 55 of 85. Of the 798 New York cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 621 have had fewer than Ronkonkoma.

Flood insurance policyholders in Ronkonkoma's ZIP code 11779 have filed 100 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $373,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Not a named storm in 1979: 27 claims (27% of all) and $19,000. 38% 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, 377 have fewer than Ronkonkoma.