The Last June U.S. Hurricane Landfall Was Decades Ago, But Tropical Storms Have Caused Serious Impacts

 Chris Dolce

Published: June 1, 2021

It's been 35 years since the United States had a hurricane landfall in June, but as recent history has shown, even a tropical storm can cause major headaches in the first month of the season.

Since 1950, there have been four U.S. hurricane landfalls in June, and all of those happened on the Gulf Coast. Those hurricanes had their origin in the Gulf of Mexico or the western Caribbean, which are the areas of the Atlantic Basin that are most hospitable for early-season tropical cyclone formation.

Typical origin areas and tracks for named storms in June.

Hurricane Bonnie in 1986 is the most recent hurricane to make a June landfall in the U.S. It struck the upper Texas coast as a Category 1 and produced moderate damage from near Port Arthur, Texas, to southwest Louisiana.

Agnes (1972), Alma (1966) and Audrey (1957) are the other three June U.S. hurricane landfalls since 1950.

NOAA has documented over a dozen additional unnamed hurricanes that made a U.S. landfall in June from 1851 through 1949. A 2013 study even discovered a U.S. hurricane landfall along the Gulf Coast in late May of 1863.

Tracks of the four June U.S. hurricane landfalls since 1950.

Major hurricanes (Category 3 or stronger) in June are extremely rare in the Atlantic. The month has accounted for just 1% of all the Atlantic majors since 1851, according to Dr. Phil Klotzbach, a tropical scientist at Colorado State University.

That makes Audrey's 1957 landfall as a Category 4 near the border between Louisiana and Texas the most astonishing for June. The hurricane rapidly strengthened just prior to landfall and pushed a storm surge of 8 to 12 feet into southwest Louisiana.

Audrey killed 416 people in the U.S., making it the 7th deadliest continental U.S. hurricane landfall on record. Many of those deaths were from storm surge.

An elderly woman in an apron and bonnet stands in front of a house, which was hit by a boat when Hurricane Audrey struck Louisiana.

Agnes was another very deadly U.S. storm in June, but not from its landfall as a Category 1 hurricane in the Florida Panhandle. Its worst impacts were felt in the Northeast, where the second chapter of Agnes as a tropical storm produced disastrous flooding.

The most severe flooding from Agnes occurred in areas from Virginia to Pennsylvania and New York. A majority of the 122 deaths from Agnes were because of this flooding.

While June has had very few U.S. hurricane landfalls in the last six decades, there have been a number of impactful tropical storms.

Last year, Tropical Storm Cristobal hit the northern Gulf Coast in early June and produced significant storm surge as well as heavy rain, gusty winds and tornadoes. NOAA estimates that Cristobal caused $310 million in damage.

The most damaging June tropical storm this century was Allison in 2001. Allison and its remnants produced more than 40 inches of rain in southeast Texas, contributing to a flooding disaster.

Allison caused $9 billion in damage, with much of that occurring in the Houston area, making it the costliest tropical storm in U.S. history.

There were 41 deaths attributed to Allison, 27 of which were attributed to freshwater flooding, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.