Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit White Plains, NY

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Dobbs Ferry-Ardsley, NY, 4 miles southwest of White Plains at 200 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 86°F and low of 64°F; January is the coolest, at 40°F and 23°F. December is the wettest at 4.7 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.3 inches; the year adds up to 51.3 inches over 80 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 51% of the year's precipitation (26.4 of 51.3 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 45 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (20); a normal September there has highs of 77°F and 4.6 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 19 days a year, almost all from May to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 109 nights a year. Snowfall averages 32.7 inches a year, most of it in February. That 51.3 inches is more than at 127 of the 137 New York stations used on this site (93%). Purchase, 3 miles east, has its own station (Westchester Co Airport, NY): 47.7 inches a year, 3.6 less than here, and a July average high of 83°F against 86°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Kings Point, NY, 15 miles south, averaged 74°F in August and 38°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Kings Point tide gauge, 15 miles from White Plains, has risen 1.08 ± 0.04 inches per decade from 1931 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 10.8 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 62 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 418 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of White Plains: 190 thunderstorm wind reports, 180 flash floods, 38 floods and 10 lightning strikes. They killed 5 people and injured 5, and the NWS estimated $7.0 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 100 mph, on July 7, 2009. September has had the most flash floods, 54 of 180. Of the 798 New York cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 724 have had fewer than White Plains.

Flood insurance policyholders in White Plains's 6 ZIP codes have filed 388 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $5.9 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Ida in 2021: 58 claims (15% of all) and $2.3 million, then Not a named storm in 1979 with 53 and Late-September New York Flooding in 2023 with 33. 61% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 549 New York cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 481 have fewer than White Plains.