Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Ship Bottom, NJ

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Brant Beach-Beach Haven, NJ, 4 miles southwest of Ship Bottom at 5 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 84°F and low of 69°F; January is the coolest, at 41°F and 27°F. August is the wettest at 4.9 inches of precipitation on average and November the driest at 2.5 inches; the year adds up to 41.0 inches over 71 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 52% of the year's precipitation (21.5 of 41.0 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 63 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (27); a normal September there has highs of 77°F and 3.3 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 10 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 71 nights a year. Snowfall averages 10.2 inches a year, most of it in February. That 41.0 inches is more than at 1 of the 51 New Jersey stations used on this site (2%). Waretown, 12 miles north, has its own station (Toms River, NJ): 52.0 inches a year, 11.0 more than here, and a July average high of 86°F against 84°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Atlantic City, NJ, 21 miles southwest, averaged 72°F in September and 40°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Atlantic City tide gauge, 21 miles from Ship Bottom, has risen 1.67 ± 0.03 inches per decade from 1911 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 16.7 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 104 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 126 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Ship Bottom: 89 thunderstorm wind reports, 13 flash floods, 11 heavy rain events, 9 lightning strikes and 4 floods. They killed 0 people and injured 3, and the NWS estimated $779,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 93 mph, on June 3, 2020. August has had the most flash floods, 5 of 13. Of the 455 New Jersey cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 30 have had fewer than Ship Bottom.

Flood insurance policyholders in Ship Bottom's ZIP code 08008 have filed 14,178 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $410.6 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Sandy in 2012: 9,812 claims (69% of all) and $380.1 million, then December Storm - Nor'easter in 1992 with 2,444 and Flooding in 1984 with 482. 94% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 395 New Jersey cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 394 have fewer than Ship Bottom.