Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Vinton, LA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Orange 9 N, TX, 9 miles west of Vinton 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 46 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 66 of the 81 Louisiana stations used on this site (81%). Sulphur, 13 miles east, has its own station (Lake Charles, LA): 59.8 inches a year, 4.6 less than here, and a July average high of 92°F against 90°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Bulk Terminal, LA, 18 miles east, averaged 93°F in August and 62°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from May to October. Sea level at the Sabine Pass tide gauge, 35 miles from Vinton, 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.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 59 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Vinton: 45 thunderstorm wind reports, 11 flash floods and 3 floods. They killed 0 people and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $14.2 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 70 mph, on July 18, 2009. Of the 239 Louisiana cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 88 have had fewer than Vinton.

Flood insurance policyholders in Vinton's ZIP code 70668 have filed 70 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1982, and were paid $3.3 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Harvey in 2017: 32 claims (46% of all) and $1.5 million, then Late winter severe storms in 2016 with 17. 90% 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, 52 have fewer than Vinton.