Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Wrightsville Beach, NC

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Wilmington 7 SE, NC, 7 miles southwest of Wrightsville Beach at 30 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 90°F and low of 74°F; January is the coolest, at 56°F and 36°F. September is the wettest at 9.2 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.6 inches; the year adds up to 65.2 inches over 83 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 63% of the year's precipitation (41.4 of 65.2 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 121 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (41); a normal September there has highs of 85°F and 9.2 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 53 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 41 nights a year. That 65.2 inches is more than at 134 of the 140 North Carolina stations used on this site (96%). Wilmington, 5 miles west, has its own station (Wilmington International Airport, NC): 60.4 inches a year, 4.8 less than here, and the same July average high, 90°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Wrightsville Beach, NC, under a mile east, averaged 82°F in August and 52°F in February over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from July to August. Sea level at the Wilmington tide gauge, 9 miles from Wrightsville Beach, 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 279 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Wrightsville Beach: 106 thunderstorm wind reports, 68 flash floods, 52 floods, 30 lightning strikes and 23 heavy rain events. They killed 6 people and injured 4, and the NWS estimated $13.6 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, 36 of 68. Of the 472 North Carolina cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 459 have had fewer than Wrightsville Beach.

Flood insurance policyholders in Wrightsville Beach's ZIP code 28480 have filed 3,560 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $52.1 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Fran in 1996: 1,449 claims (41% of all) and $31.7 million, then Hurricane Floyd in 1999 with 951 and Hurricane Bonnie in 1998 with 503. 97% 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, 257 have fewer than Wrightsville Beach.