Virginia · 4 m elevation

Barometric Pressure in Virginia Beach, VA

• 30.06Average pressure (inHg, sea level)
• 198.4Swing days a year · 20th of 50
• 106.4Big-swing days a year (≥10 hPa)
• 111.6Significant 24h drop days a year

Overview

Virginia Beach averages 198.4 significant pressure swing days a year, but January runs 5.7x stormier than August. Records, monthly data, and rankings.

Virginia Beach sits at 4 meters above sea level on the Atlantic coast, and its pressure climate reflects that position precisely. Mean sea-level pressure over 2015–2024 was 30.06 inHg (1017.9 hPa), with a median of 30.05 inHg (1017.7 hPa). The 5th and 95th percentiles sit at 29.73 inHg (1006.7 hPa) and 30.41 inHg (1029.8 hPa). The typical 24-hour change is just 0.11 inHg (3.6 hPa), but the 95th percentile of 24-hour change is 0.42 inHg (14.2 hPa) — a wide gap between an ordinary day and an active one.

Elevation is a non-factor here. Mean station pressure is 30.04 inHg (1017.4 hPa) against the sea-level mean of 30.06 inHg (1017.9 hPa) — a difference of 0.01 inHg (0.5 hPa). A home barometer in Virginia Beach reads essentially what the sea-level charts show, which is not true in cities like Denver or Salt Lake City, where the correction runs to inches.

Nationally, Virginia Beach lands just above the middle of the pack: #20 of 50 for significant swing days (198.4 per year, against a national median of 180.7), #20 for big-swing days (106.4 per year, 1.24 times the median of 86.1), and #23 for standard deviation at 0.21 inHg (6.99 hPa). That middling rank is somewhat misleading, because it averages two very different halves of the year — and because the city's extremes rank considerably higher than its routine. Its deepest 24-hour fall on record, 1.20 inHg (40.5 hPa), ranks #13 of 50, deeper than Denver's worst, even though Denver sees more swing days than any other city in the set.

Migraine & pressure-sensitivity outlook

• Low — under 6 hPa (0.18 inHg)
• Elevated — 6 to 10 hPa
• High — 10 hPa (0.30 inHg) or more
• Dashed outline = forecast (after today)

Association only. This calendar shows days when pressure changed — or is forecast to change — sharply over 24 hours, conditions associated with pressure sensitivity in some people. It is not a prediction of symptoms, not a diagnosis, and not medical advice. The 30 days of history are there so you can compare the days you actually felt something against what the barometer did. Talk to a clinician about headache or migraine management.

For people who track barometric pressure, Virginia Beach is best understood as two cities in one year. Across the full record it logs 198.4 significant swing days (a 24-hour change of at least 0.18 inHg / 6 hPa), 106.4 big-swing days (at least 0.30 inHg / 10 hPa), and 111.6 drop days — significant 24-hour falls, the pattern many pressure-sensitive people report as a trigger. Those totals put it 20th of 50 cities nationally, moderately more active than the median.

The seasonal concentration matters more than the annual total. Drop days cluster in March (15.9), January (15.2), and February (14.9), and thin out to 2.1 in August and 2.5 in July. From roughly November through March the city behaves like a northeastern storm-track city; from June through September it behaves like Florida. Late summer is the flattest stretch of the year here, with the standing caveat that tropical season overlaps it and a single coastal system can interrupt the pattern.

For comparison: Virginia Beach sees 10 times the swing days of Miami (19.8 per year) and 33 times the big-swing days (3.2), and roughly 2.4 times the swing days of Jacksonville (81.7) — both low-elevation Atlantic cities, separated from Virginia Beach mainly by latitude and the winter storm track. Against inland Raleigh, the margin is smaller but real: 1.13 times the swing days and 1.26 times the big-swing days. Looking north, Washington DC (218.6) and Baltimore (222.3) run somewhat more active, and Denver at 281.6 swing days is in a different category entirely. What Virginia Beach shares with the most volatile cities is the severity of its worst days — its deepest 24-hour drop ranks #13 of 50.

Seasonal patterns

The seasonal split in Virginia Beach is about as sharp as it gets on the East Coast. January averages 26.3 significant swing days, March 25.2, February 24.1, and December 23.7. August averages 4.6 and July 5.0 — January runs 5.7 times stormier than August by that measure. Month-to-month variability tells the same story: the standard deviation of pressure is 0.27 inHg (9.0 hPa) in January against 0.11 inHg (3.77 hPa) in July, a factor of 2.4.

The driver is the offshore storm track. From late fall through early spring, coastal low pressure systems develop along the strong temperature contrast between the continent and the Gulf Stream, and those systems deepen rapidly as they move up the coast. In summer, the Bermuda High settles over the western Atlantic and flattens the pressure field for weeks at a time. Monthly means follow suit: December and November are highest at 30.13 inHg (1020.5 and 1020.4 hPa), June lowest at 29.97 inHg (1015.0 hPa) — an annual cycle of about 0.16 inHg (5.5 hPa), far smaller than the swing in day-to-day variability.

The extremes are all cold-season events. The record high is 30.83 inHg (1044 hPa) on February 28, 2015. The record low, 29.11 inHg (985.7 hPa), came at 5 a.m. on December 18, 2023 — and the storm that produced it also delivered the second-deepest 24-hour drop in the record, 1.13 inHg (38.2 hPa) ending at 4 a.m. that same morning. The deepest fall of all was 1.20 inHg (40.5 hPa), ending the evening of January 9, 2024. Rounding out the top five: 1.12 inHg (38.0 hPa) on March 14, 2017; 1.05 inHg (35.7 hPa) on January 23, 2016; and 1.02 inHg (34.4 hPa) on January 16, 2022. Every one is a December-through-March event; no tropical system appears in the top five. The fastest 6-hour fall on record was 0.69 inHg (23.5 hPa).

Month by month

Swing days: 24-hour change of at least 6 hPa (0.18 inHg). Drop days: 24-hour fall of at least 6 hPa. Averages per year, 2015–2024.

Records and extremes

Sharpest 24-hour drops, 2015–2024

Nearby cities

• Washington, DC
• Raleigh, NC
• Baltimore, MD
• Philadelphia, PA
• New York, NY
• Charlotte, NC

All 50 cities · Check any US location · Methodology