Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Wareham, MA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is E Wareham, MA, 2 miles northeast of Wareham at 30 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 81°F and low of 64°F; January is the coolest, at 39°F and 22°F. March is the wettest at 5.6 inches of precipitation on average and July the driest at 3.1 inches; the year adds up to 51.3 inches over 83 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 48% of the year's precipitation (24.4 of 51.3 inches); the other six months are wetter. September has brought the most of the 62 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (21); a normal September there has highs of 73°F and 4.5 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 4 days a year, almost all from July. Lows fall below freezing on about 116 nights a year. Snowfall averages 37.2 inches a year, most of it in January. That 51.3 inches is more than at 53 of the 65 Massachusetts stations used on this site (82%). Rochester, 7 miles west, has its own station (Rochester, MA): 53.6 inches a year, 2.3 more than here, and a July average high of 82°F against 81°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Woods Hole, MA, 16 miles south, averaged 74°F in August and 36°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Woods Hole tide gauge, 16 miles from Wareham, has risen 1.24 ± 0.03 inches per decade from 1932 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 12.4 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 73 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 65 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Wareham: 29 thunderstorm wind reports, 18 floods, 9 lightning strikes, 8 flash floods and 1 heavy rain event. They killed 0 people and injured 3, and the NWS estimated $819,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 101 mph, on October 30, 2012. September has had the most flash floods, 5 of 8. Of the 339 Massachusetts cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 81 have had fewer than Wareham.

Flood insurance policyholders in Wareham's ZIP code 02571 have filed 642 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $8.6 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Bob in 1991: 484 claims (75% of all) and $8.2 million, then March 2010 Nor'easter in 2010 with 19. 83% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 229 Massachusetts cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 222 have fewer than Wareham.