Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Silver Spring, MD

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Beltsville, MD, 5 miles east of Silver Spring at 145 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 87°F and low of 68°F; January is the coolest, at 43°F and 25°F. July is the wettest at 4.5 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.4 inches; the year adds up to 44.0 inches over 76 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 54% of the year's precipitation (23.9 of 44.0 inches); the other six months are drier. October has brought the most of the 31 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (10); a normal October there has highs of 68°F and 4.0 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 30 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 95 nights a year. Snowfall averages 15.8 inches a year, most of it in January. That 44.0 inches is more than at 12 of the 41 Maryland stations used on this site (29%). Kensington, 3 miles southwest, has its own station (Rockville 1 NE, MD): 41.5 inches a year, 2.5 less than here, and the same July average high, 87°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Washington, DC, 12 miles south, averaged 84°F in July and 39°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from July to August. Sea level at the Washington tide gauge, 12 miles from Silver Spring, has risen 1.40 ± 0.05 inches per decade from 1924 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 14.0 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 84 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 1,276 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Silver Spring: 824 thunderstorm wind reports, 259 flash floods, 184 floods and 9 lightning strikes. They killed 9 people and injured 41, and the NWS estimated $59.5 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 96 mph, on June 22, 2012. July has had the most flash floods, 100 of 259. Of the 239 Maryland cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 230 have had fewer than Silver Spring.

Flood insurance policyholders in Silver Spring's 7 ZIP codes have filed 208 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $672,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The year with the most claims was 1979, with 27. 12% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 150 Maryland cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 132 have fewer than Silver Spring.