Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Surfside Beach, SC

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Brookgreen Gardens, SC, 10 miles southwest of Surfside Beach at 20 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 88°F and low of 72°F; January is the coolest, at 57°F and 37°F. September is the wettest at 7.1 inches of precipitation on average and November the driest at 3.0 inches; the year adds up to 55.3 inches over 75 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 58% of the year's precipitation (32.2 of 55.3 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 114 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (42); a normal September there has highs of 83°F and 7.1 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 39 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 32 nights a year. That 55.3 inches is more than at 70 of the 78 South Carolina stations used on this site (90%). Myrtle Beach, 6 miles north, has its own station (Conway, SC): 55.2 inches a year, 0.1 less than here, and a July average high of 91°F against 88°F.

Sea level at the Springmaid Pier tide gauge, 4 miles from Surfside Beach, has risen 1.32 ± 0.09 inches per decade from 1957 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 13.2 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 78 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 142 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Surfside Beach: 79 thunderstorm wind reports, 35 flash floods, 14 lightning strikes, 9 floods and 5 heavy rain events. They killed 0 people and injured 10, and the NWS estimated $5.9 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 86 mph, on March 21, 1999. October has had the most flash floods, 13 of 35. Of the 241 South Carolina cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 220 have had fewer than Surfside Beach.

Flood insurance policyholders in Surfside Beach's ZIP code 29575 have filed 995 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $16.2 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Hugo in 1989: 255 claims (26% of all) and $8.6 million, then Hurricane Floyd in 1999 with 167 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016 with 86. 73% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 110 South Carolina cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 96 have fewer than Surfside Beach.