Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Ocean Springs, MS

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Biloxi, MS, 13 miles west of Ocean Springs at 10 feet. July and August are the warmest, with an average high of 90°F and low of 75°F; January is the coolest, at 60°F and 44°F. July is the wettest at 8.1 inches of precipitation on average and October the driest at 3.7 inches; the year adds up to 66.8 inches over 76 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 53% of the year's precipitation (35.4 of 66.8 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 69 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (32); a normal September there has highs of 87°F and 5.2 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 52 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 11 nights a year. That 66.8 inches is more than at 82 of the 87 Mississippi stations used on this site (94%). Gautier, 7 miles east, has its own station (Pascagoula Lott International Airport, MS): 61.8 inches a year, 5.0 less than here, and a July average high of 91°F against 90°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Pascagoula NOAA Lab, MS, 13 miles east, averaged 86°F in August and 56°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from June to September. Sea level at the Bay Waveland tide gauge, 33 miles from Ocean Springs, 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 105 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Ocean Springs: 64 thunderstorm wind reports, 37 flash floods, 3 heavy rain events and 1 flood. They killed 0 people and injured 2, and the NWS estimated $3.0 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 75 mph, on March 7, 2008. June has had the most flash floods, 10 of 37. Of the 232 Mississippi cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 192 have had fewer than Ocean Springs.

Flood insurance policyholders in Ocean Springs's ZIP code 39564 have filed 2,985 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $239.3 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Katrina in 2005: 1,635 claims (55% of all) and $226.2 million, then Hurricane Georges in 1998 with 386 and Hurricane Zeta in 2020 with 136. 83% 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, 126 have fewer than Ocean Springs.