Published: August 19,2015
#10 Hurricane Debby (1982) – 6,494 points
This
GOES-5 visible satellite image shows Hurricane Debby churning off the
East Coast of the United States on Sept. 17, 1982, at 2 p.m. EDT.
We
ranked each season from 1960 through 2014 by looking at each individual
storm and (1) comparing its strength (using minimum central pressure)
to the season's previous strongest storm and (2) computing how many days
had passed since the formation of the previous strongest storm and the
first day of the season. The top-scoring seasons all had a hurricane in
August or September that far exceeded the strength of any other cyclones
earlier in its season.But all it takes is one significant storm for the season to wake up and cause a lot of havoc. On the next 10 pages we'll look at the seasons whose slumber was broken in the most dramatic of ways, using the scoring system described in the inset graphic. Ominously, all 10 of the seasons came to life with hurricanes that either made landfall or came close enough to cause damage on land.
The 1982 Atlantic hurricane season had an impactful start, but meteorologically there wasn’t a particularly powerful storm until Debby came along deep into September.
The season started with a depression on its first day; that became Hurricane Alberto, which drenched Cuba with deadly flooding. An unnamed subtropical storm formed later in June and killed three people in Florida. After that, there were no Atlantic Basin tropical cyclones for more than two months, as a developing El Niño helped create a hostile environment.
Tropical storms Beryl and Chris caused some minor damage in the Cape Verde Islands and Louisiana, respectively, in late August and early September.
On Sept. 13, a tropical depression formed just north of Haiti. It charted a mostly north-northeastward course as it strengthened into a hurricane. It brushed Bermuda with tropical storm-force winds, then peaked as a Category 4 hurricane unusually far north at 38.8 degrees North latitude – about the same latitude as Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Debby brought rain and blustery winds to Newfoundland before curving out to sea. The rest of the season was uneventful, with two depressions and a weak tropical storm all staying over the open Atlantic without approaching land.
#9 Hurricane Alex (2004) – 6,720 points
This
GOES-12 visible satellite image shows Hurricane Alex moving away from
the East Coast of the United States on Aug. 4, 2004, at 5 p.m. EDT.That depression earned the name Alex on Aug. 1. It eventually became a hurricane, and its eyewall grazed the Outer Banks of North Carolina, causing both wind and flood damage. Alex then moved out to sea but became a Category 3 hurricane over the open Atlantic waters.
By the end of August, the 2004 season had racked up eight named storms, a record number for August. The season finished with six major hurricanes, four of which made landfall in the U.S., thousands dead (mainly in Haiti) and billions of dollars in hurricane damage.
#8 Hurricane Irene (2011) – 6,885 points
The 2011 season started with eight consecutive tropical storms. Most of them were inconsequential, though Arlene did bring deadly flooding to Mexico.Irene formed as a tropical storm on Aug. 21 and became a hurricane as it struck Puerto Rico the next day. It then went on to become a major hurricane over water before grazing the mid-Atlantic coast and slamming into western New England. Irene’s rainfall unleashed disastrous flooding in Vermont.
Irene currently ranks as the seventh-costliest hurricane in U.S. history, having caused $15.8 billion in damage.
The 2011 season went on to produce an additional six hurricanes (three of those also majors) and an above-average Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) index. The ACE index reflects the wind fields (both wind speed and areal coverage) over the lifetime of a tropical storm or hurricane; the seasonal total is the sum of the individual storms' scores.
#7 Hurricane Allen (1980) – 7,107 points
A
building in Corpus Christi, Texas, stands ruined by Hurricane Allen
several weeks after the storm struck in August 1980. (Photo credit:
Wikimedia Commons/Jay Phagan)A month and a half passed before the 1980 season produced even a tropical depression. After three weak depressions formed in the second half of July, Hurricane Allen roared to life in early August.
The storm went on to become one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic basin, reaching a minimum pressure of 899 millibars on Aug. 7, 1980. It is also the only one to have three separate stints as a Category 5 storm.
It affected Barbados, St. Lucia, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, the northeast tip of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, and both sides of the Texas/Mexico border. More than 250 people died across that region as a result of Allen.
Allen was one of two major hurricanes among the nine hurricanes that developed during the above-average 1980 Atlantic hurricane season.
#6 Hurricane Camille (1969) – 7,469 points
Satellite image of Hurricane Camille in the Gulf of Mexico in 1969. (NOAA)Ranking just behind Allen as the sixth-strongest hurricane on record in the Atlantic Basin, Hurricane Camille reached its lowest central pressure of 900 millibars just as it made landfall on the Mississippi Gulf Coast on Aug. 18, 1969.
Camille’s winds, estimated as high as 175 mph, brought a deadly 24-foot storm surge to Mississippi. Though often overlooked, the flooding Camille produced in Virginia was even deadlier than the storm surge in Mississippi.
Camille marked a dramatic escalation in a season that didn’t produce a named storm until July 25 (Anna). Camille’s lowest pressure was 97 millibars lower than the season’s previous strongest storm, Hurricane Blanche, just a few days earlier.
The 1969 season went on to become the busiest since 1933, with 18 tropical cyclones of at least tropical storm strength. It yielded 12 hurricanes, setting an Atlantic Basin record not surpassed until 2005.
#5 Hurricane Bret (1999) – 7,500 points
An animated loop of satellite images showing Hurricane Bret approaching the Texas Gulf Coast in 1999. (NASA)By mid-August there had been Tropical Storm Arlene, way out in the central Atlantic, and short-lived Tropical Depression Two, which drenched Mexico but caused no known damage or casualties.
The season’s third depression formed on Aug. 18 and became Tropical Storm Bret the next day. By the 22nd it was a Category 4 hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico. Fortunately, the ominous prospect of a landfalling major Gulf hurricane was mitigated by its landfall (as a Category 3) in the least populated coastal county of the continental United States – Kenedy County, with a population of just of 400.
Another four hurricanes (three of them major) formed within a month after Bret, including the devastating Hurricane Floyd, which was the deadliest U.S. hurricane since Agnes 27 years earlier.
The 1999 season finished with five Category 4 hurricanes, an Atlantic Basin record that has since been matched by the infamous 2005 season, but exceeded by none.
#4 Hurricane David (1979) – 8,184 points
This
GOES-2 visible satellite image shows Category 5 Hurricane David over
the Caribbean Sea approaching the Dominican Republic on Aug. 31, 1979,
at 11 a.m. EDT.The season had not passed without incident before David – a minimal hurricane (Bob) and a tropical storm (Claudette) had both made landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast, killing one and two people, respectively. Claudette set the all-time 24-hour precipitation record for the United States when it dumped 42 inches of rain on Alvin, Texas.
Those storms, whose names were not retired, paled in comparison to Hurricane David. A classic Cape Verde system, David earned its name on Aug. 26, a day after forming as a depression. On Aug. 27, it became a hurricane; by the 29th, it struck Dominica as a Category 4 storm.
David then curved across the waters of the Caribbean and smashed into the Dominican Republic as a Category 5 monster, destroying thousands of houses and killing at least 2,000 people.
A weakened David eventually reached the U.S., making a rare Georgia landfall on Sept. 4 before curling over the rest of the East Coast states and weakening further.
The U.S. suffered a bigger blow from the 1979 season barely a week later, when Hurricane Frederic slammed into the central Gulf Coast west of Mobile, Alabama, and became the costliest hurricane in U.S. history up until that time.
#3 Hurricane Anita (1977) – 8,892 points
Businesses
were taking on water along the Seabrook Channel in Seabrook, Texas, as
Hurricane Anita’s churning in the Gulf of Mexico pushed Galveston Bay
waters out and flooded low areas on Sept. 1, 1977. Anita was spinning
about 275 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas. (AP Photo/Ed Kolenovsky)The 1977 Atlantic hurricane season was a total snoozer to begin with. By Aug. 29, there had been five tropical depressions but no named storms.
That fifth depression became Tropical Storm Anita over the north-central Gulf of Mexico on Aug. 30, marking the latest date for the “A” storm to be named in the satellite era (1960 to present).
Anita took a west-southwestward track while strengthening rapidly during the first two days of September, reaching Category 5 status with 175-mph winds and a central pressure of 926 millibars on Sept. 2. It slammed into northeastern Mexico as a Category 4 storm on Sept. 4, killing at least 11 people.
Anita survived the trek across Mexico and emerged in the Eastern Pacific as a tropical depression, but soon dissipated.
Another two Atlantic Basin hurricanes formed within 10 days after Anita, but the season as a whole was a below-average one. Using the ACE index, it is the second-quietest Atlantic hurricane season on record since 1950.
#2 Hurricane Gilbert (1988) – 9,400 points
Hurricane Gilbert at 9 a.m. CDT on Sept. 14, 1988, as it approached Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. (Source: NOAA)Much of the summer of 1988 passed before the Atlantic hurricane season produced its first named storm, and it wasn’t until September that the season saw its first hurricanes. One of those, however, became the strongest ever recorded up until that time.
By the time Tropical Storm Gilbert formed on Sept. 9, there had been seven prior tropical storms (six of them named), two of which had been minimal hurricanes. The strongest of those, Hurricane Florence, peaked the same day Gilbert was named, at a minimum pressure of 984 millibars.
After raking across Jamaica as a Category 3 storm, Gilbert spun itself into a Category 5 beast with 185-mph winds over the northwest Caribbean Sea. Gilbert outdid Florence by a whopping 94 millibars as it bottomed out at 888 millibars on Sept. 13. That earned Gilbert the Atlantic Basin intensity record, a record it held until Hurricane Wilma hit 882 millibars in 2005.
The next day, Gilbert slammed into Cozumel and the coast of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, still a Category 5, causing extreme damage. A somewhat weakened but still formidable Gilbert emerged into the Gulf of Mexico and made a final landfall just south of the U.S.-Mexico border on Sept. 16.
More than 300 people died as a result of Gilbert’s wrath across Mexico and the Caribbean.
Two additional major hurricanes formed in 1988 after Gilbert, and the season ended up near average in the Atlantic Basin.
#1 Hurricane Andrew (1992) – 12,160 points
The first named storm of the 1992 season came after a very long wait – but it stunned Americans with some of the most ferocious destruction that had ever been witnessed in the television era.There had been two tropical depressions and an unnamed subtropical storm earlier in the season, but it wasn’t until Aug. 17 that the season’s third tropical depression became Tropical Storm Andrew.
Andrew struggled to strengthen, taking another five days to become a hurricane. After that, though, it powered up rapidly, and made landfall south of Miami as a Category 5 hurricane with 165-mph winds in the wee hours of Aug. 24, 1992. The central pressure was 922 millibars, 80 millibars lower than the subtropical storm earlier in the season.
The 1992 season quieted down almost as fast as it escalated. While there were another three hurricanes, none were major and none affected land. Two named tropical storms formed, and one affected the U.S. East Coast, but impacts were relatively minor.
Andrew remains the cardinal example of why everyone on the Gulf and Atlantic coasts should be prepared for hurricanes every season, regardless of how many storms are forecast to develop.
Meteorologist Quincy Vagell contributed to this story.
No comments:
Post a Comment