NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Orange, TX
Every tropical system within 75 miles since 1851 and every tornado within 25 miles since 1950.
Data: NOAA NHC HURDAT2 and NOAA SPC tornado and hail reports, through 2025 · Updated
47 tropical systems have passed within 75 miles of Orange, Texas since 1851, 20 of them at hurricane strength; the most recent was Delta in 2020. Since 1950, 160 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 8 of them rated EF3 or stronger.
- Hurricanes
- 20
- Tropical storms
- 27
- Tornadoes
- 160
- EF3 or stronger
- 8
within 75 mi, since 1851
below hurricane strength
within 25 mi, since 1950
5 deaths in all
What the records show for Orange
The strongest storm to pass near Orange was Laura in 2020, a Category 4 hurricane with 137 mph winds when its centre passed 29 miles away. The closest pass by a hurricane was Humberto in 2007, whose centre crossed the city. The record near Orange begins with an unnamed storm in 1863; the most recent system was Delta in 2020, a Category 2 hurricane 47 miles away. The busiest decade was the 1980s, with 8 systems, 3 of them at hurricane strength. Of the 47 systems, 9 have come since 2000. Orange has more hurricanes within 75 miles than 92% of the 753 Texas cities on this site. The strongest of the 160 tornadoes within 25 miles was an F4 on November 7, 1957; its path came within 4 miles, and it killed 1 person. The deadliest, an F3 on November 7, 1957, killed 2 people. Of the 160, 17 had paths within 5 miles of the city centre, and 39 have come since 2000. October has had the most tornadoes, 24. The most recent tornado was on December 28, 2024. Orange has more tornadoes within 25 miles than 83% of the 753 Texas cities. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 43 times since 1976, with stones up to 2.5 inches (tennis ball size). Of the 753 Texas cities, 74% have more hail reports within 10 miles than Orange.
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Tropical storms and hurricanes near Orange
Of the 47 tracks on the map, 18 were moving north as they passed Orange, 15 northwest and 7 west. Laura (2020), the strongest pass, was heading north and came ashore 37 miles southeast of Orange. Within 75 miles of Orange, 31 of the 47 came ashore, 19 of them as hurricanes. In the last 30 seasons (1996–2025), 9 came near Orange: 3.0 a decade, against 2.6 a decade from 1851 to 1995.
| Year | Storm | Closest | Strength when closest | Peak |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | DeltaOct 9 | 47 mi | Category 2 (98 mph) | Category 4 |
| 2020 | LauraAug 27 | 29 mi | Category 4 (137 mph) | Category 4 |
| 2019 | BarryJul 14 | 60 mi | Tropical storm (54 mph) | Category 1 |
| 2017 | HarveyAug 30 | 23 mi | Tropical storm (46 mph) | Category 4 |
| 2017 | CindyJun 22 | 2 mi | Tropical storm (49 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 2008 | IkeSep 13 | 73 mi | Category 2 (105 mph) | Category 4 |
| 2008 | EdouardAug 5 | 44 mi | Tropical storm (63 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 2007 | HumbertoSep 13 | overhead | Category 1 (79 mph) | Category 1 |
| 2005 | RitaSep 24 | 7 mi | Category 2 (96 mph) | Category 5 |
| 1989 | JerryOct 16 | 68 mi | Tropical storm (48 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1989 | ChantalAug 1 | 52 mi | Category 1 (81 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1987 | Unnamed 1987 stormAug 10 | 43 mi | Tropical storm (46 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1986 | BonnieJun 26 | 34 mi | Tropical storm (72 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1985 | JuanOct 28 | 74 mi | Category 1 (86 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1985 | DannyAug 15 | 65 mi | Category 1 (81 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1982 | ChrisSep 11 | 7 mi | Tropical storm (59 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1980 | DanielleSep 5 | 50 mi | Tropical storm (54 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1979 | ClaudetteJul 24 | 7 mi | Tropical storm (47 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1978 | DebraAug 29 | 19 mi | Tropical storm (48 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1974 | CarmenSep 8 | 47 mi | Tropical storm (55 mph) | Category 4 |
| 1973 | Unnamed 1973 stormSep 12 | 3 mi | Tropical storm (40 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1971 | EdithSep 16 | 61 mi | Category 1 (92 mph) | Category 4 |
| 1970 | FeliceSep 16 | 57 mi | Tropical storm (69 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1963 | CindySep 17 | 47 mi | Tropical storm (61 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1957 | BerthaAug 10 | 29 mi | Tropical storm (60 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1957 | AudreyJun 27 | 10 mi | Category 3 (114 mph) | Category 3 |
| 1955 | Unnamed 1955 stormAug 27 | 59 mi | Tropical storm (40 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1954 | BarbaraJul 29 | 18 mi | Tropical storm (47 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1943 | Unnamed 1943 stormJul 27 | 62 mi | Category 2 (104 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1942 | Unnamed 1942 stormAug 21 | 65 mi | Category 1 (75 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1940 | Unnamed 1940 stormSep 24 | 28 mi | Tropical storm (46 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1940 | Unnamed 1940 stormAug 7 | 34 mi | Category 2 (98 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1938 | Unnamed 1938 stormAug 15 | 20 mi | Tropical storm (64 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1934 | Unnamed 1934 stormAug 27 | 64 mi | Category 1 (81 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1926 | Unnamed 1926 stormAug 27 | 75 mi | Tropical storm (40 mph) | Category 3 |
| 1918 | Unnamed 1918 stormAug 6 | 19 mi | Category 2 (101 mph) | Category 3 |
| 1908 | Unnamed 1908 stormAug 1 | 53 mi | Tropical storm (40 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1898 | Unnamed 1898 stormSep 28 | 42 mi | Tropical storm (44 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1898 | Unnamed 1898 stormSep 20 | 63 mi | Tropical storm (52 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1897 | Unnamed 1897 stormSep 13 | 28 mi | Category 1 (86 mph) | Category 1 |
| 1886 | Unnamed 1886 stormOct 13 | 11 mi | Category 1 (86 mph) | Category 3 |
| 1886 | Unnamed 1886 stormJun 14 | 4 mi | Category 1 (91 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1882 | Unnamed 1882 stormSep 15 | 13 mi | Tropical storm (55 mph) | Tropical storm |
| 1879 | Unnamed 1879 stormAug 23 | 31 mi | Category 1 (92 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1875 | Unnamed 1875 stormSep 18 | 28 mi | Tropical storm (46 mph) | Category 3 |
| 1865 | Unnamed 1865 stormSep 13 | 20 mi | Category 1 (90 mph) | Category 2 |
| 1863 | Unnamed 1863 stormSep 30 | 23 mi | Tropical storm (58 mph) | Tropical storm |
Strength is the sustained wind on the track at the closest point, which is not the wind felt in Orange: a hurricane's worst winds sit within a few dozen miles of its centre, and inland cities are usually past that.
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Tornadoes within 25 miles of Orange
By decade
- 2020s15(1 EF3+)
- 2010s13
- 2000s11
- 1990s28
- 1980s20(2 EF3+)
- 1970s40(2 EF3+)
- 1960s18
- 1950s15(3 EF3+)
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 7, 1957 | F4 | 4 mi | 12.9 mi | 1 / 81 |
| Nov 7, 1957 | F3 | 12 mi | 3.6 mi | 2 / 59 |
| Dec 28, 2024 | EF3 | 17 mi | 67.88 mi | 0 / 2 |
| May 20, 1983 | F3 | 24 mi | 5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jan 31, 1983 | F3 | 24 mi | 1 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Apr 17, 1973 | F3 | 7 mi | 0.5 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Oct 11, 1970 | F3 | 12 mi | 4.3 mi | 0 / 19 |
| Nov 7, 1957 | F3 | 20 mi | 1.5 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Jan 2, 1999 | F2 | 19 mi | 4.5 mi | 1 / 10 |
| May 20, 1983 | F2 | 17 mi | 3 mi | 1 / 9 |
| Apr 10, 2024 | EF2 | 18 mi | 2.7 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jan 24, 2023 | EF2 | in town | 25.21 mi | 0 / 2 |
The strongest 12 of 160, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.
Hail in Orange
The Storm Prediction Center has 43 hail reports within 10 miles of Orange since 1976, made on 37 separate days. Of these, 27 were 1 inch across or larger, and one reached 2 inches. The largest, 2.5 inches (tennis ball size), fell on May 7, 1995. The most recent report is from April 29, 2024. May has the most reports, 15.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Orange
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Orange 9 N, TX, 7 miles north of Orange at 18 feet. July and August are the warmest, with an average high of 90°F and low of 73°F; January is the coolest, at 61°F and 40°F. June is the wettest at 6.8 inches of precipitation on average and March the driest at 3.5 inches; the year adds up to 64.4 inches over 76 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 57% of the year's precipitation (36.4 of 64.4 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 47 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (18); a normal September there has highs of 87°F and 6.4 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 74 days a year, almost all from May to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 19 nights a year. That 64.4 inches is more than at 309 of the 312 Texas stations used on this site (99%). Bridge City, 8 miles southwest, has its own station (Port Arthur SE Tx Airport, TX): 62.2 inches a year, 2.2 less than here, and a July average high of 93°F against 90°F.
Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Port Arthur, TX, 20 miles southwest, averaged 88°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 Sabine Pass tide gauge, 28 miles from Orange, has risen 2.43 ± 0.15 inches per decade from 1958 to 2020, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 24.3 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 136 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip. in | Days ≥ 0.1" | Water °F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 61 | 40 | 5.7 | 7 | 56 |
| Feb | 64 | 44 | 4.2 | 6 | 58 |
| Mar | 70 | 50 | 3.5 | 6 | 65 |
| Apr | 76 | 56 | 4.2 | 5 | 72 |
| May | 83 | 64 | 5.1 | 5 | 79 |
| Jun | 88 | 71 | 6.8 | 8 | 85 |
| Jul | 90 | 73 | 5.8 | 8 | 87 |
| Aug | 90 | 72 | 6.7 | 8 | 88 |
| Sep | 87 | 67 | 6.4 | 7 | 85 |
| Oct | 79 | 57 | 6.0 | 5 | 78 |
| Nov | 69 | 47 | 4.7 | 5 | 68 |
| Dec | 62 | 42 | 5.3 | 7 | 61 |
| Year | 77 | 57 | 64.4 | 76 | 74 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Orange 9 N, TX (18 ft), from NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals; water temperature: average of hourly readings 2021–2025 at the NOAA tide station Port Arthur, TX, from NOAA Tides & Currents. Normals describe the station; the farther a place is from it, and the bigger the difference in height, the more its weather can differ.
Floods, thunderstorm wind and lightning near Orange
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 84 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Orange: 51 thunderstorm wind reports, 24 flash floods, 5 floods, 3 lightning strikes and 1 heavy rain event. They killed 1 person and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $65.3 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 64 mph, on April 25, 1997. Of the 745 Texas cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 497 have had fewer than Orange.
March 21, 2012: flood 9 miles from the centre of Orange — 1 killed, $1,000 damage.
August 10, 2010: lightning strike 2 miles from the centre of Orange — 1 injured.
NWS: “KJAS Radio and KFDM-TV reported an unidentified man was injured by a lightning strike at the Flying J Truck Stop on Interstate 10 at Highway 62 west of Orange.”
September 19, 2019: flash flood 5 miles from the centre of Orange — $50.0 million damage.
NWS: “Heavy rain from the slowly moving remnants of Imelda produced flooding across portions of Orange County. The first report in the county was of FM 105 impassable with water entering many homes in Vidor.”
Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, events whose starting point is on record, 1996 to June 30, 2026. Damage is the NWS estimate in the dollars of the year, not insured losses, and NWS notes that some reports are unverified.
Flood insurance claims, disaster declarations and FEMA risk ratings
Flood insurance policyholders in Orange's 2 ZIP codes have filed 6,083 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $497.6 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Harvey in 2017: 2,719 claims (45% of all) and $295.3 million, then Hurricane Ike in 2008 with 1,332 and Tropical Storm Imelda in 2019 with 909. 94% 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, 426 have fewer than Orange.
| Event | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane Harvey2017 | 2,719 | $295.3 million |
| Hurricane Ike2008 | 1,332 | $100.1 million |
| Tropical Storm Imelda2019 | 909 | $80.9 million |
| Hurricane Rita2005 | 222 | $1.1 million |
| Late winter severe storms2016 | 176 | $11.4 million |
| Flooding1989 | 106 | $527,000 |
Orange County, which includes Orange, has been named in 31 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1973, 21 of them major disasters (by incident: 10 hurricanes, 6 floods, 5 severe storms, 4 fires). The latest major disaster declaration was Hurricane Beryl, on July 9, 2024. FEMA's National Risk Index gives Orange County a Relatively Moderate rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Relatively High for hurricanes and lightning; Relatively Moderate for tornadoes, inland flooding and coastal flooding; Relatively Low for strong wind and heat waves; Very Low for hail. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $54.3 million a year, the 29th highest of 254 Texas counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $21.5 million (40%), is from hurricanes.
Claims: FEMA, OpenFEMA Dataset FIMA NFIP Redacted Claims – v3, summed over ZIP codes; payments in the dollars of each year, not adjusted for inflation. Declarations: Disaster Declarations Summaries – v2, by county. Retrieved October 25, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).
Risk ratings: FEMA, National Risk Index county table, December 2025 (v1.20), retrieved October 26, 2026; ratings compare counties nationwide, are meant for planning and are no substitute for a local risk assessment. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Risk Index dataset API or downloadable datasets but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).
Orange in the notable storm records: Hurricane Harvey (2017)
What counts as a pass, the distances and the sources: how this storm history is built.
Cities near Orange
- Bridge City, TX8 mi
- Vinton, LA12 mi
- Vidor, TX13 mi
- Port Neches, TX15 mi
- Groves, TX15 mi
- Nederland, TX17 mi
- Port Arthur, TX18 mi
- Beaumont, TX22 mi
- Buna, TX24 mi
- Sulphur, LA25 mi
- Lumberton, TX26 mi
- Silsbee, TX30 mi
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