Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Westwego, LA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is New Orleans Audubon, LA, 3 miles east of Westwego at 20 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 94°F and low of 77°F; January is the coolest, at 64°F and 47°F. July is the wettest at 8.8 inches of precipitation on average and October the driest at 3.6 inches; the year adds up to 64.7 inches over 78 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 56% of the year's precipitation (36.1 of 64.7 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 80 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (33); a normal September there has highs of 90°F and 5.7 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 106 days a year, almost all from May to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 4 nights a year. That 64.7 inches is more than at 69 of the 81 Louisiana stations used on this site (85%). Harahan, 3 miles northwest, has its own station (New Orleans International Airport, LA): 63.3 inches a year, 1.4 less than here, and an August average high of 91°F against 94°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Carrollton, LA, 3 miles northeast, averaged 88°F in August and 47°F in February over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from June to September. Sea level at the New Canal tide gauge, 9 miles from Westwego, 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 448 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Westwego: 249 flash floods, 179 thunderstorm wind reports, 10 heavy rain events, 6 floods and 4 lightning strikes. They killed 3 people and injured 4, and the NWS estimated $8.4 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 100 mph, on March 29, 2011. April has had the most flash floods, 48 of 249. Of the 239 Louisiana cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 233 have had fewer than Westwego.

Flood insurance policyholders in Westwego's ZIP code 70094 have filed 5,479 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $33.1 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1995: 2,417 claims (44% of all) and $15.6 million, then Hurricane Katrina in 2005 with 1,747 and Hurricane Ida in 2021 with 177. The year with the most claims was 2005, with 1,801. 89% 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, 204 have fewer than Westwego.