Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Metairie, LA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is New Orleans International Airport, LA, 4 miles west of Metairie at 4 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 91°F and low of 77°F; January is the coolest, at 63°F and 46°F. June is the wettest at 7.6 inches of precipitation on average and October the driest at 3.7 inches; the year adds up to 63.3 inches over 77 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 54% of the year's precipitation (34.0 of 63.3 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 76 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (31); a normal September there has highs of 88°F and 5.1 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 85 days a year, almost all from May to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 5 nights a year. That 63.3 inches is more than at 56 of the 81 Louisiana stations used on this site (69%). Westwego, 6 miles south, has its own station (New Orleans Audubon, LA): 64.7 inches a year, 1.4 more than here, and a July average high of 94°F against 91°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station New Canal Station, LA, 4 miles northeast, averaged 90°F in August and 56°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from May to September. Sea level at the New Canal tide gauge, 4 miles from Metairie, has risen 2.36 ± 0.19 inches per decade from 1982 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 23.6 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 131 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 476 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Metairie: 257 flash floods, 200 thunderstorm wind reports, 9 heavy rain events, 6 floods and 4 lightning strikes. They killed 3 people and injured 2, and the NWS estimated $47.8 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 100 mph, on March 29, 2011. July has had the most flash floods, 48 of 257. Of the 239 Louisiana cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 236 have had fewer than Metairie.

Flood insurance policyholders in Metairie's 5 ZIP codes have filed 46,870 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $1.94 billion for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Katrina in 2005: 27,641 claims (59% of all) and $1.70 billion, then Flooding in 1995 with 14,718 and Tropical Storm Isidore in 2002 with 852. 96% 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, 217 have fewer than Metairie.