Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Buras, LA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Buras, LA, in Buras at 5 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 90°F and low of 77°F; January is the coolest, at 62°F and 47°F. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 58% of the year's precipitation (36.2 of 62.8 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 81 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (35); a normal September there has highs of 86°F and 6.6 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 34 days a year, almost all from June to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 3 nights a year. That 62.8 inches is more than at 54 of the 81 Louisiana stations used on this site (67%). Port Sulphur, 21 miles northwest, has its own station (Lsu Citrus Rsch Stn, LA): 63.9 inches a year, 1.1 more than here, and the same July average high, 90°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Pilottown, LA, 19 miles southeast, averaged 87°F in August and 47°F in February over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from June to September. Sea level at the Grand Isle tide gauge, 27 miles from Buras, has risen 3.59 ± 0.07 inches per decade from 1947 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 35.9 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 141 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 9 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Buras: 8 thunderstorm wind reports and 1 heavy rain event. None is recorded as killing or injuring anyone; the NWS estimated $48,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 58 mph, on February 22, 1998.

Flood insurance policyholders in Buras's ZIP code 70041 have filed 1,433 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $100.7 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Katrina in 2005: 1,093 claims (76% of all) and $97.2 million, then Hurricane Ida in 2021 with 58 and Hurricane Isaac in 2012 with 39. 90% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 219 Louisiana cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 173 have fewer than Buras.