Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit South Orange, NJ

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Canoe Brook, NJ, 5 miles west of South Orange at 180 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 86°F and low of 66°F; January is the coolest, at 40°F and 22°F. August is the wettest at 4.9 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.0 inches; the year adds up to 50.4 inches over 80 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 54% of the year's precipitation (27.2 of 50.4 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 44 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (20); a normal September there has highs of 78°F and 4.6 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 29 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 117 nights a year. Snowfall averages 24.0 inches a year, most of it in February. That 50.4 inches is more than at 35 of the 51 New Jersey stations used on this site (69%). Orange, 2 miles northeast, has its own station (Harrison, NJ): 50.7 inches a year, 0.3 more than here, and a July average high of 87°F against 86°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station The Battery, NY, 13 miles east, averaged 74°F in August and 39°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Bergen Point tide gauge, 10 miles from South Orange, has risen 1.86 ± 0.13 inches per decade from 1981 to 2024, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 18.6 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 114 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 784 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of South Orange: 374 thunderstorm wind reports, 310 flash floods, 69 floods, 28 lightning strikes and 3 heavy rain events. They killed 18 people and injured 29, and the NWS estimated $20.8 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 104 mph, on June 10, 2008. July has had the most flash floods, 105 of 310. Of the 455 New Jersey cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 380 have had fewer than South Orange.

Flood insurance policyholders in South Orange's ZIP code 07079 have filed 58 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $719,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Ida in 2021: 14 claims (24% of all) and $453,000. 50% 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, 164 have fewer than South Orange.