Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Saugus, MA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Boston Logan International Airport, MA, 7 miles south of Saugus at 12 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 82°F and low of 66°F; January is the coolest, at 37°F and 23°F. December is the wettest at 4.3 inches of precipitation on average and February and August the driest at 3.2 inches; the year adds up to 43.7 inches over 77 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 50% of the year's precipitation (21.7 of 43.7 inches). September has brought the most of the 47 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (18); a normal September there has highs of 73°F and 3.6 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 14 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 92 nights a year. Snowfall averages 49.2 inches a year, most of it in February. That 43.7 inches is more than at 8 of the 65 Massachusetts stations used on this site (12%). Melrose, 3 miles west, has its own station (Reading, MA): 49.9 inches a year, 6.2 more than here, and a July average high of 84°F against 82°F.

Sea level at the Boston tide gauge, 8 miles from Saugus, 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 477 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Saugus: 283 thunderstorm wind reports, 120 floods, 44 flash floods and 30 lightning strikes. They killed 1 person and injured 12, and the NWS estimated $36.2 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 90 mph, on July 11, 2006. July has had the most flash floods, 22 of 44. Of the 339 Massachusetts cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 297 have had fewer than Saugus.

Flood insurance policyholders in Saugus's ZIP code 01906 have filed 379 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $3.4 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1996: 88 claims (23% of all) and $346,000, then Not a named storm in 1979 with 33 and March 2010 Nor'easter in 2010 with 28. 45% 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, 213 have fewer than Saugus.