Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Wilmington, NC

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Wilmington International Airport, NC, 4 miles north of Wilmington at 33 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 90°F and low of 73°F; January is the coolest, at 57°F and 36°F. September is the wettest at 8.7 inches of precipitation on average and April the driest at 3.1 inches; the year adds up to 60.4 inches over 79 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 63% of the year's precipitation (37.8 of 60.4 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 120 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (41); a normal September there has highs of 84°F and 8.7 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 45 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 37 nights a year. Snowfall averages 0.9 inches a year, most of it in January. That 60.4 inches is more than at 125 of the 140 North Carolina stations used on this site (89%). Wrightsville Beach, 5 miles east, has its own station (Wilmington 7 SE, NC): 65.2 inches a year, 4.8 more than here, and the same July average high, 90°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Wilmington, NC, 4 miles west, averaged 84°F in July and 49°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from June to August. Sea level at the Wilmington tide gauge, 4 miles from Wilmington, has risen 1.10 ± 0.07 inches per decade from 1935 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 11.0 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 64 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 328 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Wilmington: 121 thunderstorm wind reports, 83 flash floods, 58 floods, 35 lightning strikes and 31 heavy rain events. They killed 5 people and injured 5, and the NWS estimated $16.0 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 100 mph, on May 31, 2003. September has had the most flash floods, 43 of 83. Of the 472 North Carolina cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 463 have had fewer than Wilmington.

Flood insurance policyholders in Wilmington's 6 ZIP codes have filed 3,613 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $60.5 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Fran in 1996: 1,070 claims (30% of all) and $24.2 million, then Hurricane Florence in 2018 with 886 and Hurricane Floyd in 1999 with 634. 91% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 263 North Carolina cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 258 have fewer than Wilmington.