Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Gulfport, MS

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Gulfport - Biloxi Airport, MS, 1 mile southeast of Gulfport at 42 feet. July and August are the warmest, with an average high of 90°F and low of 75°F; January is the coolest, at 61°F and 42°F. July is the wettest at 7.2 inches of precipitation on average and October the driest at 3.7 inches; the year adds up to 62.7 inches over 74 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 53% of the year's precipitation (33.5 of 62.7 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 72 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (33); a normal September there has highs of 88°F and 5.2 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 69 days a year, almost all from May to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 16 nights a year. That 62.7 inches is more than at 75 of the 87 Mississippi stations used on this site (86%). Long Beach, 7 miles southwest, has its own station (Gulfport Naval Ctr, MS): 68.3 inches a year, 5.6 more than here, and the same July average high, 90°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Bay Waveland Yacht Club, MS, 16 miles southwest, averaged 87°F in July and August and 54°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from June to September. Sea level at the Bay Waveland tide gauge, 16 miles from Gulfport, has risen 1.81 ± 0.13 inches per decade from 1978 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 18.1 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 112 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 151 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Gulfport: 86 thunderstorm wind reports, 54 flash floods, 6 lightning strikes, 3 floods and 2 heavy rain events. They killed 1 person and injured 0, and the NWS estimated $3.0 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 81 mph, on March 9, 2011. June has had the most flash floods, 15 of 54. Of the 232 Mississippi cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 214 have had fewer than Gulfport.

Flood insurance policyholders in Gulfport's 3 ZIP codes have filed 4,667 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $307.6 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Katrina in 2005: 1,799 claims (39% of all) and $264.6 million, then Hurricane Georges in 1998 with 459 and Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 with 229. 68% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 133 Mississippi cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 130 have fewer than Gulfport.