by Bill Evans
Rina
Sam
Shary
Sean
Teresa
Tomas
Tammy
Victor
Virginie
Vince
Wanda
Walter
Whitney
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You Have Been Retired from the Game!
Hurricanes that have a severe impact on people’s lives and are devastating to property and the economy become part of weather history, and are remembered for generations. When a storm of this magnitude occurs, any country affected by the storm can request that the storm’s name be retired by the World Meteorological Organization. Here is a list of major Atlantic and Caribbean hurricanes whose names will no longer be used.
Hurricane Dennis
NASA
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Retired Names
NAME
YEAR
Agnes
1972
Alicia
1983
Allen
1980
Allison
2001
Andrew
1992
Anita
1977
Audrey
1957
Betsy
1965
Beulah
1967
Bob
1991
Camille
1969
Carla
1961
Carmen
1974
Carol
1954
Celia
1970
Cesar
1996
Charley
2004
Cleo
1964
Connie
1955
David
1979
Dean
2007
Dennis
2005
Diana
1990
Diane
1955
Donna
1960
Dora
1964
Edna
1968
Elena
1985
Eloise
1975
Fabian
2003
Felix
2007
Fifi
1974
Flora
1963
Floyd
1999
Fran
1996
Frances
2004
Frederic
1979
Georges
1998
Gilbert
1988
Gloria
1985
Gustav
2008
Hattie
1961
Hazel
1954
Hilda
1964
Hortense
1996
Hugo
1989
Ike
2008
Inez
1966
Ione
1955
Iris
2001
Isabel
2003
Isidore
2002
Ivan
2004
Janet
1955
Jeanne
2004
Joan
1988
Juan
2003
Katrina
2005
Keith
2000
Klaus
1990
Lenny
1999
Lili
2002
Luis
1995
Marilyn
1995
Michelle
2001
Mitch
1998
Noel
2007
Opal
1995
Paloma
2008
Rita
2005
Roxanne
1995
Stan
2005
Wilma
2005
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Hurricane Katrina
NASA
The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale
I’m sure you’ve heard of hurricanes being rated on some sort of scale. You hear people say, “That storm is a 1,” or “That one is a Category 2,” and so on. Those numbers are from the Saffir-Simpson Scale. This scale was formulated in 1969, after Hurricane Camille slaughtered the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The damage from that hurricane was quite shocking, at least in part because there was, at that time, no way to predict a storm’s potential impact. The population had no sense of what to expect from a hurricane of Camille’s mammoth strength and size.
National Hurricane Center, National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce
Dr. Robert Simpson, who at the time was director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, realized the need to help disaster agencies better understand how much damage a particular storm might cause. So he called on Herbert Saffir, a consulting engineer who, Simpson says, was “well known as the father of the Miami building code.” Simpson handled the meteorology part, and Saffir the engineering part, of developing a new hurricane damage assessment tool.
The two came up with the Saffir-Simpson Damage-Potential Scale, which assigns each hurricane a rating, from 1 to 5, based on the storm’s intensity. This scale is used to estimate the potential property damage and flooding expected along the coast from a hurricane landfall. Wind speed is the only determining factor in the scale; after all, projecting storm surge heights are difficult due to the varied slope of the continental shelf and the shape of the coastline in the area where the hurricane makes landfall.
CATEGORY 1 HURRICANE
Winds 74 to 95 mph (64 to 83 kt). This is a minimal hurricane that brings a small storm surge, generally 4 to 5 feet above normal. However, this relatively small surge should not be taken lightly, as the time of the storm’s arrival and the shape of the coastline are major factors. For example, if the storm arrives at high tide, then the surge will be higher.
There’s little chance of serious damage to buildings in a storm this size. However, there will be some damage to various sorts of structures, especially unanchored mobile homes, and shrubbery and trees, which take a beating. Signs will be blown down as well as some power lines. At the beach or along the coast there will be some flooding of roads and minor damage to piers.
CATEGORY 2 HURRICANE
Winds 96 to 110 mph (83 to 96 kt). This is where you begin to see significant damage to the roofs, doors, and windows of buildings. There’s also considerable damage to mobile homes, piers, and to poorly constructed signs on buildings and along roads. The storm surge can be as high as 5 to 10 feet at the normal high tide. Coastal roads and escape routes flood 2 to 4 hours before the arrival of the hurricane’s center. Small boats in unprotected anchorages break their moorings and go flying.
CATEGORY 3 HURRICANE
Winds 111 to 130 mph (96 to 113 kt). Once a storm becomes a Category 3, it is considered major. The storm surge is generally 9 to 12 feet above normal with structural damage to residences and other buildings. Mobile homes and most signs are destroyed. Many plants are stripped of their foliage and even large trees are blown down.
Low-lying roads and evacuation routes are cut by rising water 3 to 5 hours before arrival of the center of the hurricane. Flooding near the coast destroys smaller homes and buildings; larger structures are damaged, battered by floating debris. Areas where the land is lower than 5 feet above mean sea level may be flooded for 8 miles or more inland. Residents in these areas will have to be evacuated, especially those within several blocks of the shoreline.
A flooded forest after a storm
Mike Irwin; used by permission.
CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE
Winds 131 to 155 mph (114 to 135 kt). At this point, the storm surge is generally 13 t
o 18 feet above normal! There’s more extensive destruction with some complete roof structure failures on small residences. There’s complete destruction of mobile homes and extensive damage to doors and windows of permanent structures. Major damage occurs to lower floors of structures near the shore. Shrubs, trees, and all signs are blown down.
Low-lying escape routes may be cut by rising water 3 to 5 hours before the arrival of the center of the hurricane. Any area of land lower than 10 feet above sea level may be flooded, requiring massive evacuation of residential areas as far inland as 6 miles!
Category 5 Hurricane
Winds greater than 155 mph (135 kt). Whoa! This is the top of the scale! The storm surge is generally greater than 18 feet above normal. Roofs on nearly all residences and industrial buildings will be completely destroyed. Larger structures will be shattered while smaller ones will be blown away. Your mobile home is gone!
There will be severe and extensive window and door damage to inland homes and buildings. There’s also major damage to the lower floors of all buildings located less than 15 feet above sea level and within 500 yards of the shoreline. All shrubs, trees, and signs will be blown down.
Low-lying escape routes are cut by rising water 3 to 5 hours before the arrival of the center of the hurricane. There will be massive evacuation of residential areas on low ground within 5 to 10 miles of the shoreline.
Only three Category 5 hurricanes have made landfall in the United States since records began: the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 (remember, the naming of hurricanes did not begin until the 1940s), Hurricane Camille in 1969, and Hurricane Andrew in August 1992. The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane struck the Florida Keys with a minimum barometric pressure of 892 millibars (mb)—the lowest pressure of a hurricane at landfall ever observed in the United States. The lower the pressure, the stronger and nastier the storm will be.
When Hurricane Camille struck the Mississippi Gulf Coast, it caused a 25-foot storm surge, which inundated Pass Christian. Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 storm over the Gulf of Mexico, was responsible for at least 81 billion dollars of property damage when it struck the Gulf Coast as a Category 3. Katrina is by far the costliest hurricane to ever strike the United States.
Hurricane Wilma of 2005 was a Category 5 hurricane at its peak intensity. Wilma is the strongest Atlantic tropical cyclone on record, with a minimum pressure of 882 mb. Fortunately, it did not make landfall at peak intensity! Wilma was a Category 3 as the time of her landfall.
Hurricane Katrina
NASA
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Deadliest Tropical Storms in U.S. History, Resulting in Fifty or More Deaths
DEATHS
LOCATION
DATE
8,000+
Galveston, T X
September 1900
2,500+
Lake Okeechobee, FL
September 1928
1,000–2,500
SC, GA
August 1893
1,800–2,000
Coastal LA and MS
October 1896
1,836
(Hurricane Katrina) LA, MS
August 2005
700+
GA, SC
August 1881
638
New England
September 1938
600+
Florida (marine)
September 1919
500+
GA, SC
September 1804
450+
Corpus Christi, T X
September 1919
424
NC Capes (marine)
September 1857
408
Florida Keys
September 1935
400
Île Dernière, LA
August 1856
390
New England
September 1944
390
(Hurricane Audrey) west LA
June 1957
350+
Grand Isle, LA
September 1909
300
South Carolina
September 1922
275
New Orleans, LA
September 1915
275
Upper coast of Texas
August 1925
256
(Hurricane Camille) MS, V A
August 1
243
Florida
September 1926
184
(Hurricane Diane) NC to ME
September 1955
179
Georgia coast
October 1898
176
Indianola, T X
September 1875
164
Southeast Florida
October 1906
134
FL, AL, and MS
September 1906
122
(Tropical Storm Agnes) PA, NY
June 1972
100+
Sabine, T X
October 1886
100
Florida
September 1896
95
(Hurricane Hazel) NY, NJ
October 1954
90+
SC, NC (marine)
October 1837
75
Hurricane Betsy (FL, LA)
September 1965
70
Brownsville, T X
August 1844
68
Florida
October 1896
60
(Hurricane Carol) MA, ME
August 1954
57
(Hurricane Hugo) SC, NC
September 1989
53
(Hurricane Floyd) NC to NJ
September 1999
52
(Hurricane Ivan) AL, FL
September 2004
51
San Antonio, T X
September 1921
51
Southeast Florida, LA, MS
September 1947
50
South Florida
November 1925
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Costliest Hurricanes
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East Coast Hurricanes—Highest Wind Speeds in Atlantic Tropical Storms
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The Most Extreme Wind Anywhere in the World!
A wind gust of 190 mph was measured by the weather station on the island of Miyako-jima in the Ryukyu Islands chain on September 5, 1966. This is the highest wind speed ever measured in a tropical storm anywhere in the world!
Pacific Hurricanes
Atlantic Ocean hurricanes affect the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the eastern coast of the United States, whereas Pacific hurricanes affect the western coast of the United States and Mexico, the Far East (the eastern edge of China, plus Japan, Taiwan, and all other nations with coastlines along the Pacific Ocean), and islands in the Pacific, like Hawaii. In the Far East, hurricanes are called typhoons; Australians like to call them “willy-willies.”
The Pacific hurricane/typhoon seasons are May 15 to November 30 for the eastern Pacific (western Mexico, Baja California, California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Alaska, Russia); June 1 to November 30 for the central Pacific (western Mexico, western Latin America, Hawaii, Polynesia, Micronesia, and central Pacific islands); October 15 to May 15 for the southwest Pacific/Australian basin; and year-round for the northwest Pacific basin.
Eastern Pacific storms originate just north of the equator, off the western coasts of Mexico and Central America, in places where the water reaches temperatures of 80ºF or more. These hurricanes then move north to northwest, into the central Pacific. While a hurricane proper has never hit the coast of California, remnants of hurricanes have. Most hurricanes weaken as they near the California coast because the water temperature there is 60ºF (156ºC) year-round, which weakens the storms considerably.
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The Tops in Centr
al Pacific Hurricanes
STRENGTH
NAME
DATE
Category 5 (173 miles/150 kt)
John
August 1994
Category 5 (173 miles/150 kt)
Patsy
September 1959
Category 5 (161 miles/140 kt)
Ioke
August 2006
Category 5 (161 miles/140 kt)
Emilia
July 1994
Category 5 (161 miles/140 kt)
Gilma
July 1994
Category 4 (144 miles/125 kt)
