Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Bridge City, TX

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Port Arthur SE Tx Airport, TX, 12 miles southwest of Bridge City at 16 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 93°F and low of 74°F; January is the coolest, at 64°F and 44°F. July and August are the wettest at 6.9 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.1 inches; the year adds up to 62.2 inches over 71 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 59% of the year's precipitation (36.6 of 62.2 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 50 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (20); a normal September there has highs of 90°F and 6.7 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 93 days a year, almost all from May to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 9 nights a year. That 62.2 inches is more than at 306 of the 312 Texas stations used on this site (98%). Orange, 8 miles northeast, has its own station (Orange 9 N, TX): 64.4 inches a year, 2.2 more than here, and an August average high of 90°F against 93°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Port Arthur, TX, 12 miles southwest, averaged 88°F in August and 56°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from June to September. Sea level at the Sabine Pass tide gauge, 21 miles from Bridge City, has risen 2.43 ± 0.15 inches per decade from 1958 to 2020, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 24.3 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 136 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 95 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Bridge City: 55 thunderstorm wind reports, 30 flash floods, 6 lightning strikes, 3 floods and 1 heavy rain event. They killed 1 person and injured 2, and the NWS estimated $56.1 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 85 mph, on May 2, 2024. June has had the most flash floods, 8 of 30. Of the 745 Texas cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 558 have had fewer than Bridge City.

Flood insurance policyholders in Bridge City's ZIP code 77611 have filed 3,346 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $319.9 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Ike in 2008: 1,886 claims (56% of all) and $246.6 million, then Hurricane Harvey in 2017 with 829 and Hurricane Rita in 2005 with 177. 95% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 433 Texas cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 407 have fewer than Bridge City.