Purpose
To add valuable knowledge about historical tropical cyclone activity in Southwest, South Central, and Central Louisiana, along with Southeast Texas. This work includes storms documented from 1886 through 1997 and should provide an excellent reference for those who live in Louisiana and Texas and to those interested in the area's climatology.
Area of Study
The principal region of study includes the Lake Charles National Weather Service Office County Warning Area (CWA); the area it is responsible for issuing warnings, forecasts, advisories, and statements. In Southeast Texas, this includes the counties of Jefferson, Orange, Jasper, Newton, Tyler, and Hardin. In Louisiana, this includes the parishes of Cameron, Vermilion, Iberia, St. Mary, Upper and Lower St. Martin, Calcasieu, Jefferson Davis, Acadia, Lafayette, Beauregard, Allen, Evangeline, St. Landry, Vernon, Rapides, and Avoyelles.
In addition, places outside Lake Charles' CWA were included in this study as well since typical tropical cyclones affect regions 70 miles west and 100 miles east of the center. There are exceptions, however. For example, Hurricane Carla of 1961 made landfall near Corpus Christi and produced storm surges as far away as Lake Pontchartrain on the order of 5 feet. This storm was not included in the survey because it made landfall over 200 miles away from Lake Charles.
To account for the above, a radius of 150 nautical miles from Lake Charles was chosen. All tropical cyclones that have reached tropical storm strength and have passed through this area were included in this paper. This region encompasses the metropolitan areas of Houston and Beaumont in Texas and the cities of Lake Charles, Lafayette, Alexandria, Baton Rouge, and Shreveport in Louisiana.
Rough Climatology
Out of the 112 seasons studied, 71 tropical cyclones passed within the area in question. Of these 71 tropical storms, 34 were hurricanes, and 8 of these hurricanes were considered major (category 3 to 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale). This gives a frequency of one tropical storm through the area every 1.6 years, one hurricane every 3.3 years, and a major hurricane every 14 years. The longest the area went with a break in tropical storm activity was seven years (1905-1912) and fifteen years was the longest sojourn in hurricane activity (1900-1915).
In contrast, four of the seasons studied had 3 tropical cyclones enter the area (1932, 1957, 1985, and 1989). The following is a list of the hurricanes which have entered this region:
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Table 1- Dates indicate closest approach/initial landfall of hurricane Hurricanes that have made landfall within 150 miles of Lake Charles |
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| Number 9 - Oct. 12, 1886 | Number 5 - Aug. 27, 1934 | Fern - Sept. 10, 1971 |
| Number 3 - July 05, 1888 | Number 2 - Aug. 15, 1938 | Edith - Sept. 16, 1971 |
| Number 1 - July 05, 1891 | Number 2 - Aug. 07, 1940 | Carmen - Sept. 08, 1974 |
| Number 8 - Sept. 07, 1893 | Number 1 - Aug. 21, 1942 | Babe - Sept. 05, 1977 |
| Number 2 - Sept. 12, 1897 | Number 1 - July 27, 1943 | Alicia - Aug. 18, 1983 |
| Galveston - Sept. 09, 1900 | Number 4 - Sept. 19, 1947 | Danny - Aug. 15, 1985 |
| Number 2 - Aug. 17, 1915 | Audrey - June 27, 1957 | Juan - Oct. 28, 1985 |
| Number 1 - Aug. 06, 1918 | Debra - July 25, 1959 | Bonnie - Jun. 26, 1986 |
| Number 2 - Sept. 22, 1920 | Cindy - Sept. 17, 1963 | Chantal- Aug. 01, 1989 |
| Number 3 - Oct. 16, 1923 | Hilda - Oct. 03, 1964 | Jerry - Oct. 16, 1989 |
| Number 3 - Aug. 25, 1926 | Betsy - Sept. 10, 1965 | Andrew- Aug. 26, 1992 |
| Number 2 - Aug. 14, 1932 | ||
* Author's current affiliation: NWS National Centers for Environmental Prediction - Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, Camp Springs, Maryland
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