Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Sumner, WA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Mcmillin Rsvr, WA, 5 miles southwest of Sumner at 579 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 77°F and low of 53°F; December is the coolest, at 45°F and 33°F. November is the wettest at 7.1 inches of precipitation on average and July and August the driest at 0.9 inches; the year adds up to 45.2 inches over 110 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 3 days a year, almost all from July. Lows fall below freezing on about 60 nights a year. Snowfall averages 5.6 inches a year. That 45.2 inches is more than at 56 of the 86 Washington stations used on this site (65%). Pacific, 5 miles northwest, has its own station (Tacoma #1, WA): 40.8 inches a year, 4.4 less than here, and the same August average high, 77°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Tacoma, WA, 12 miles northwest, averaged 56°F in September and 48°F in March over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Seattle tide gauge, 29 miles from Sumner, has risen 0.82 ± 0.03 inches per decade from 1899 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 8.2 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 42 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 7 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Sumner: 2 floods, 2 thunderstorm wind reports, 2 lightning strikes and 1 heavy rain event. None is recorded as killing or injuring anyone; the NWS estimated $9.7 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 45 mph, on May 13, 2013.

Flood insurance policyholders in Sumner's ZIP code 98390 have filed 217 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1990, and were paid $5.5 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Torrential rain in 2006: 82 claims (38% of all) and $2.1 million, then Flooding in 1996 with 18. The year with the most claims was 2009, with 111. 46% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 128 Washington cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 111 have fewer than Sumner.