Storms hit Montgomery County on 6 days in July 2026, tying July 2025 for the most since 1996

NOAA's Storm Events Database lists thunderstorm wind, flash flood or hail reports in Montgomery County on 6 days in July 2026. That ties July 2025 for the most of any July since 1996, and it is more than twice the July average of 2.4 days from 1996 through 2025. The database is kept by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) from National Weather Service reports. Its home page said on October 27, 2026 that the data run through July 2026, and the 2026 file used here is dated October 26, 2026.

Four of the six days brought damaging wind, with 8 reports of trees and wires blown down. Three brought flash floods, the sudden flooding that follows heavy rain over a few hours, with 6 reports of closed roads and water rescues. July 11 had both. No hail was reported in the county in July.

The counts in this article are this site's tally of NCEI's yearly files, filtered to the county. A storm day is a date with at least one report of thunderstorm wind, flash flood, hail or a tornado anywhere in the county, from Bala Cynwyd and Cheltenham to Pottstown.

Wind brought trees down on 4 days in July, and flash floods came on 3

The month opened with four days of hot, humid weather and a stalled boundary that set off thunderstorms each afternoon, according to the Weather Service summary in the record. On July 3 a trained spotter reported trees down around Green Lane and Tylersport, with fires started by downed wires and transformers. On July 4 state officials reported trees and wires down around Hatfield, Lansdale and Lower Merion, and the record says Lower Merion had the most significant damage.

July 11 came closest to Conshohocken. The Weather Service summary describes a slow-moving front and a series of microbursts, which are short bursts of wind that rush down out of a thunderstorm and spread out at the ground. A member of the public reported a tree blown down onto a house in Plymouth Meeting. In Lower Merion, broadcast media reported numerous trees uprooted and large branches down across the township, and a public report from Wynnewood describes a large tree that was later found to have fallen in a microburst.

Within 20 minutes of the Lower Merion wind reports, fire and rescue crews reported water rescues at Old Gulph Road and Morris Avenue, on Grays Lane and at City Avenue and Old Lancaster Road in Bala Cynwyd.

The other storm days were July 9, with flash flooding that closed roads near Sanatoga and Stowe and submerged vehicles, July 18, with trees down in North Wales, and July 28, with a water rescue in Marlborough Township.

The Weather Service put July's gusts at 58 to 69 mph

The Weather Service estimated the July gusts at 50 to 60 knots, or about 58 to 69 mph. The two 60-knot estimates, near Green Lane on July 3 and in Bala Cynwyd on July 11, are at the top end of what the county usually sees: of the 503 wind reports from 1996 through 2025 that carry a speed, 35 were 60 knots or more. The record marks all eight July 2026 speeds as estimated gusts.

Three of the flash flood reports carry property damage estimates: $30,000 at Stowe, and $10,000 each at the Old Gulph Road rescue and the Marlborough rescue. The wind reports carry no dollar estimate.

July had more wind days and flash flood days than any other month from 1996 to 2025

From 1996 through 2025, Montgomery County had thunderstorm wind reports on 52 days in July, the most of any month, just ahead of 50 in June. It had flash flood reports on 25 July days, also the most of any month, with August close behind at 24. Eight of those 30 Julys had no wind report at all, and four of them, 2000, 2002, 2007 and 2022, had no storm report of any kind.

2026 has 8 wind days through July, and only 3 years since 1996 had more

With July added, 2026 has 8 thunderstorm wind days and 29 wind reports from January through July, along with 4 flash flood days. Only 2021, with 12 wind days, 2019, with 11, and 2002, with 9, had more wind days in the same seven months since 1996. The 2026 count ties 2020 and 2023.

Caveats

These are counts of reports, so they depend on someone seeing the damage and telling the Weather Service. The July 2026 reports came from spotters, state and county officials, an emergency manager, fire and rescue crews, broadcast media and members of the public. A rise in reports can come from more reporting as well as from more storms, which is why this article counts days.

The place in each report is the nearest name on the Weather Service's location list, so the narrative can name a different town. The Marble Hall report describes a tree in Plymouth Meeting, and the West Point report describes trees in North Wales. A county total says little about any one street.

NCEI reissues its yearly files, and the 2026 figures come from the file dated October 26, 2026, so they can change. The database adds a month about 75 days after it ends, so storms from August onward are not in these counts.