Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit New Orleans, LA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Terrytown 3S, LA, 5 miles south of New Orleans at 10 feet. July and August are the warmest, with an average high of 92°F and low of 76°F; January is the coolest, at 63°F and 45°F. July is the wettest at 7.3 inches of precipitation on average and October the driest at 3.7 inches; the year adds up to 66.0 inches over 78 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 54% of the year's precipitation (35.7 of 66.0 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 79 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (34); a normal September there has highs of 89°F and 6.8 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 90 days a year, almost all from May to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 7 nights a year. That 66.0 inches is more than at 74 of the 81 Louisiana stations used on this site (91%). Metairie, 8 miles west, has its own station (New Orleans International Airport, LA): 63.3 inches a year, 2.7 less than here, and a July average high of 91°F against 92°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station New Canal Station, LA, 5 miles northwest, 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, 5 miles from New Orleans, 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 509 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of New Orleans: 271 flash floods, 215 thunderstorm wind reports, 10 heavy rain events, 7 floods and 6 lightning strikes. They killed 3 people and injured 4, and the NWS estimated $8.3 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, 51 of 271. Of the 239 Louisiana cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 238 have had fewer than New Orleans.

Flood insurance policyholders in New Orleans's 19 ZIP codes have filed 129,685 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $7.22 billion for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Katrina in 2005: 71,231 claims (55% of all) and $6.67 billion, then Flooding in 1995 with 36,983 and Tropical Storm Isidore in 2002 with 3,149. 94% 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, 218 have fewer than New Orleans.