Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Highlands, TX

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Baytown, TX, 8 miles northeast of Highlands at 26 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 92°F and low of 74°F; January is the coolest, at 63°F and 41°F. June is the wettest at 7.1 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.8 inches; the year adds up to 64.7 inches over 73 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 57% of the year's precipitation (36.8 of 64.7 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 54 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (20); a normal September there has highs of 89°F and 6.4 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 84 days a year, almost all from May to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 9 nights a year. That 64.7 inches is more than at 310 of the 312 Texas stations used on this site (99%). Channelview, 5 miles southwest, has its own station (Houston-Port, TX): 54.3 inches a year, 10.4 less than here, and an August average high of 94°F against 92°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Morgans Point, Barbours Cut, TX, 10 miles southeast, averaged 88°F in August and 57°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from June to September. Sea level at the Morgans Point tide gauge, 10 miles from Highlands, has risen 1.50 ± 0.24 inches per decade from 1993 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 15.0 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 90 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 65 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Highlands: 48 thunderstorm wind reports, 14 flash floods and 3 lightning strikes. They killed 1 person and injured 0, and the NWS estimated $2.9 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 75 mph, on June 5, 2011. Of the 745 Texas cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 298 have had fewer than Highlands.

Flood insurance policyholders in Highlands's ZIP code 77562 have filed 1,035 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $23.3 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1981: 522 claims (50% of all) and $9.7 million, then Hurricane Harvey in 2017 with 150 and Hurricane Alicia in 1983 with 69. The year with the most claims was 2017, with 151. 86% 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, 371 have fewer than Highlands.