Hurricane Audrey at 50

Compiled by:
Donovan Landreneau, Forecaster
Sam Shamburger, Forecaster
 

Just about everyone who lives or grew up across Southern Louisiana and Southeast Texas knows the story of Hurricane Audrey, whether it was stories your parents or grandparents passed on, or literature read within the history books.

During the early morning hours of June 27, 1957, an early season hurricane named Audrey roared ashore Southwest Louisiana and Southeastern Texas. Audrey spread a massive storm surge across most of Cameron parish, and across the southern halves of Vermilion, Iberia, and St. Mary parishes, causing total devastation in property and many lives lost. Figure 1 displays the areas inundated with selected high water mark levels. Figure 2 illustrates a post storm SLOSH (Sea, Lake and Overland Surges from Hurricanes) model of Audrey's passage, with an animation available in 15 minute increments.

Hurricane Audrey ranks as the 7th deadliest hurricane to strike the United States (2nd deadliest within Louisiana) in modern record keeping, with at least 500 deaths. The exact number will never be known, as many perished in the storm surge in Cameron and Vermilion parishes, and many missing persons were never found.

Hurricane Audrey is also noted as being the strongest June hurricane to make landfall within the United States, and one of only two major hurricanes to make landfall in the month of June. The other major hurricane affected Louisiana across St. Mary and Terrebonne parishes on June 16, 1934.

Figure 3 illustrates a rare radar mosaic of Audrey consisting of MPS-7 23-cm weather radars from Ellington Air Force Base in Houston, England Air Force Base in Alexandria, Louisiana, and Houma, Louisiana. An animation of this radar mosaic is available in hourly increments.

Table 1 lists a summary of highest sustained and peak winds, as well as lowest pressure for Hurricane Audrey across Louisiana and Southeast Texas. Notice the unusually high gusts recorded at Lafayette (86 mph) & Baton Rouge (69 mph), some 70 to 120 miles east of the eye.  Since Audrey made land fall during the day, the atmosphere was more unstable, thus allowing the convective rain bands to transfer the much higher winds aloft to the surface. Figure 4 shows an estimation of highest wind gust contours across Louisiana and Southeast Texas.

Many have compared the impacts of Hurricane Audrey with Hurricane Rita.  Click here to see a meteorological comparison of these two historic hurricanes.


Figure 1. Map of Hurricane Audrey's storm surge inundation across Southern Louisiana and Southeast Texas. Click here for a high resolution version of this map.


Figure 2. SLOSH Model of Hurricane Audrey's storm surge inundation across Southern Louisiana and Southeast Texas. Click here for an animation. 

Figure 3. Mosaic of MPS-7 23-cm weather radars from Ellington Air Force Base in Houston, England Air Force Base in Alexandria, Louisiana, and Houma, Louisiana on June 27, 1957 at  1 PM CST. Even several hours after landfall, Audrey's eye is still intact over Beauregard Parish, some 60 miles inland. Click here for an hourly animation. (Imagery courtesy of Texas A&M).


Table 1 - Summary of minimum pressures and highest winds recorded across Louisiana and Southeast Texas (official reports):

Location Minimum Sea Level Pressure Maximum Sustained Wind (1 min. avg.) Peak Wind Gust

Lake Charles, LA (NWS) 28.69" / 971.4 mb @ 11:47 AM CST 75 mph / 65 knots @ 10:30 AM CST 97 mph / 84 knots @ 9:30 AM CST Port Arthur, TX (NWS) 28.67" / 970.9 mb @ 10:33 AM CST 72 mph / 63 knots @ 10:36 AM CST 85 mph / 74 knots @ 10:33 AM CST Lafayette, LA (Airport) 29.34" / 993.6 mb @ 10:30 AM CST 58 mph / 50 knots @ 2:58 PM CST 86 mph / 75 knots @ 2:17 PM CST Alexandria, LA (England AFB) 29.00" / 982.1 mb @ 3:58 PM CST 48 mph / 42 knots @ 1:57 PM CST 64 mph / 56 knots @ 2:58 PM CST Galveston, TX (NWS) 29.13" / 986.5 mb @ 5:58 AM CST 58 mph / 50 knots @ 4:20 AM CST 76 mph / 66 knots @ 4:15 AM CST Baton Rouge, LA (NWS) 29.54" / 1000.3 mb @ 12:58 PM & 2:58 PM CST 40 mph / 35 knots @ 11:25 AM through 1:44 PM CST 69 mph / 60 knots @ 1:37 PM CST New Orleans, LA (NWS) 29.65" / 1004.2 mb @ 4:55 PM CST 35 mph / 30 knots @ 1:30 PM CST 53 mph / 46 knots @ 10:30 AM CST Burrwood, LA (NWS) 29.74" / 1007.1 mb @ 3:50 AM CST 40 mph / 35 knots @ 3:50 AM CST 52 mph / 45 knots @ 3:50 AM CST Lufkin, TX (Airport) 29.34" / 993.6 mb @ 12:58 PM through 1:58 PM CST 20 mph / 17 knots @ 7:38 AM CST 32 mph / 28 knots @ 8:58 AM CST Shreveport, LA (NWS) 29.28" / 991.3 mb @ 4:55 PM CST 30 mph / 26 knots @ 1:59 PM & 3:57 PM CST 51 mph / 44 knots @ 4:16 PM CST Bossier City, LA (Barksdale AFB) 29.27" / 991.1 mb @ 4:58 PM through 5:57 PM CST 28 mph / 24 knots @ 3:05 PM CST 36 mph / 31 knots @ 4:40 PM CST Monroe, LA (Airport) 29.07" / 984.4 mb @ 9:00 PM CST 35 mph / 30 knots @ 5:20 PM & 7:00 PM CST 63 mph / 55 knots @ 5:20 PM CST Additional unofficial reports:  Sulphur, LA City Services reported wind gust of 105 mph at 9:40 AM CST. Sulphur, LA City Police reported light wind (eye) at 11:05 AM CST. Westlake, LA public call reported light wind (eye) at 11:05 AM CST. Orange, TX (Sabine River Authority) reported peak wind gusts of around 100 mph (eyewall). Orange, TX (Sabine River Authority) later reported calm winds (eye). Sabine Pass, TX reported sustained winds of 85 mph gusting to 100 mph (eyewall). Morgan City, LA reported peak sustained winds of around 50 mph. Cameron, LA reported a minimum pressure of 959 mb (28.32" of Hg).

Figure 4 - Hurricane Audrey estimated maximum wind gusts map (click image for larger map) Wind map estimated based on surface observations.



Table 2 - Storm total rainfall recorded from June 26-28, 1957 across Louisiana and Southeast Texas.

Location June 26th June 27th June 28th Storm Total

Lake Charles, LA (NWS) 0.22" 7.35" 0.00" 7.57" Port Arthur, TX (NWS) 0.14" 6.76" 0.00" 6.90" Lafayette, LA (Airport) 0.00" 3.69" 0.00" 3.69" Alexandria, LA (England AFB) 0.18" 3.52" 0.00" 3.70" Galveston, TX (NWS) 0.84" 1.01" 0.00" 1.85" Baton Rouge, LA (NWS) 0.00" 1.49" 0.02" 1.51" New Orleans, LA (NWS) Trace 0.14" 0.01" 0.15" Burrwood, LA (NWS) 1.73" Trace 0.00" 1.73" Lufkin, TX (Airport) 0.00" 0.27" 0.00" 0.27" Shreveport, LA (NWS) 0.00" 0.45" 0.00" 0.45" Bossier City, LA (Barksdale AFB) 0.00" 0.38" 0.00" 0.38" Monroe, LA (Airport) 0.00" 2.84" 0.01" 2.85"

Page last modified: October 5, 2007