Most interesting Atlantic storm since 1995?

[Hurricanehink]

We've had some interesting seasons since 1995, and certainly we've had a handful of interesting storms. However, if you had to rank them, what would you say would be the most interesting storm in, say, the last 20 years?

My top five would be
5) Kyle 02 - one of the longest lasting storms on record, and definitely longest in my lifetime. It kept chugging and chugging, finally dissipating after 22 days
4) Epsilon 05 - another late-season hurricane, it wasn't expected to do much. Instead, it was the longest lasting December hurricane on record, creating what seemed like endless confusion among the NHC.
3) Allison 01 - it was supposed to dissipate after striking Texas. However, it decided to drop over 40 inches of rain in Texas and leave over $5 billion in damage before going back to the Gulf Coast and moving across much of the SE US.
2) Ivan 04 - it was the southernmost major hurricane, C4, and C5 on record. It caused extensive damage all across the Caribbean while reaching C5 status three times. It briefly threatened New Orleans but hit Florida, eventually looping around and (in my opinion what should have been classified a new storm) redeveloped in the Gulf of Mexico a week later
1) Wilma 05 - it was a tough choice, but the storm I found most interesting was that little cluster in the Caribbean that became the most intense hurricane on record. It produced the heaviest rainfall on record in Mexico before becoming (IIRC) the latest major hurricane in the year to hit the United States.

[bexar]

Vince 2005 - Very unusual storm indeed.
Felix 2007 - The reliable models were doing so badly with him, the GFDL and HWRF didn't even strengthen him past TD.
Fred 2009 - Forecasters never expected him to reach MH status so far east in the Atlantic.
Julia 2010 - Like Fred, forecasters never expected her to reach cat. 4, most surprisingly, beating Fred's record far east in the Atlantic.
Wilma 2005 - Strengthened rapidly amidst very high shear to become the most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded.

honorable mention:

Ophelia 2011 - None of the models I think predicted her to become the 3rd major this season during her 2nd lifetime. Reached Cat. 4 status at a high latitude.


most interesting storm ever for me was Hurricane Dog of 1950. Dog maintained Cat. 5 status in a very high latitude in the open Atlantic. No other hurricane I think had the same feat.

[bg1]

Ernesto 2006, Hanna 2008, Irene 2011- because they were all supposed to bring some effects to the Midlands and Lowcountry of South Carolina, and they all decided to turn north.

Grace 2009- came when I figured the season was over.

Zeta- I turned on The Weather Channel on December 30 and they said they were tracking a tropical storm

Wilma- I turned on TWC expecting maybe a Category 3 at most and they say it may be the strongest Atlantic storm on record (175 mph, 884 mb at the 5 am advisory )

[brunota2003]

I have to say WILMAAAA! I remember going to bed reading this:

11 PM EDT TUE OCT 18 2005

WILMA HAS DEVELOPED THE DREADED PINHOLE EYE. REPORTS FROM THE AIR
FORCE RESERVE HURRICANE HUNTER INVESTIGATING WILMA BETWEEN 19Z AND
23Z INDICATED A 7-8 N MI WIDE EYE...WITH THE CENTRAL PRESSURE
DROPPING FROM 970 MB TO 954 MB IN 3 HR 14 MIN.

I woke up, got ready for school, and was astounded to read this:

5 AM EDT WED OCT 19 2005

...TO USE THE PROPER WORD...RELAYED...

IN ADDITION TO THE SPECTACULAR CLOUD PATTERN OBSERVED ON SATELLITE
...AN AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE PLANE MEASURED 168 KNOTS AT 700 MB
AND ESTIMATED A MINIMUM PRESSURE OF 884 MB EXTRAPOLATED FROM 700MB.
UNOFFICIALLY...THE METEOROLOGIST ON BOARD THE PLANE RELAYED AN
EXTRAPOLATED 881 MB PRESSURE AND MEASURED 884 MB WITH A DROPSONDE.
THIS IS ALL IN ASSOCIATION WITH A VERY SMALL EYE THAT HAS BEEN
OSCILLATING BETWEEN 2 AND 4 N MI DURING EYE PENETRATIONS. THIS IS
PROBABLY THE LOWEST MINIMUM PRESSURE EVER OBSERVED IN THE ATLANTIC
BASIN AND IS FOLLOWED BY THE 888 MB MINIMUM PRESSURE ASSOCIATED
WITH HURRICANE GILBERT IN 1988. HOWEVER...ONE MUST BE VERY CAREFUL
BEFORE IT IS DECLARED A RECORD MINIMUM PRESSURE UNTIL A FULL AND
DETAILED CALIBRATION OF THE INSTRUMENTS AND CALCULATIONS IS
PERFORMED. SO PLEASE DO NOT JUMP INTO CONCLUSIONS YET...BE PATIENT.

8 AM EDT WED OCT 19 2005

...WILMA MAINTAINING CATEGORY FIVE STATUS...RECORD PRESSURE
CONFIRMED BY AIRCRAFT CREW...

[Chacor]

Grace for making landfall in the UK as an IMO tropical system; and Lenny for its rare eastward track.

[Cyclone1]

Top 5? Sure, I'm all about Top 5 lists.

First, honorable mentions:

-Cyclone Catarina. Obviously. It was the first actual full fledged hurricane in the entire South Atlantic ocean, ever. A few weak ones managed to spin up before and since, but none of them had that gorgeous structure; very clearly a hurricane where there shouldn't be one. Honorable mention, because it was in the South Atlantic, and I'm not sure if that counts.

-1991 Halloween Nor'easter, unofficially Hurricane Henri. The really interesting thing about this storm was its origin. Honorable mention because by the time it became an actual tropical cyclone, it had already made its legacy as a nor'easter.

-Tropical Storm Ana. April storms are always interesting, but that's really all Ana has going for her.

-All the obvious ones, Wilma, and Ike, and yeah.

#5. Tie: Hurricane Debby, 2000, Tropical Storm Chris, 2006. Both Number 5 on my list for the same reason; just how badly they were anticipated, and how dramatically they fell apart. Debby was being forecast to hit the Miami area as a major hurricane, and Chris was forecast to enter the warm Gulf under the Florida straits as a fully solidified hurricane, a little bit like Katrina had done the year before. Both of them dissipated rather embarrassingly.

#4 Hurricane Humberto, 2007. It went from an Invest to a category 1 hurricane within 24 hours. I was there. There was nothing on the satellite presentation before it bombed. I, like most of the forums, was stunned. Worthy of my #4 spot, I think.

#3 Tropical Storm Allison, 2001. Probably counts as an "obvious" one, listed above, but whatever. Incredibly disorganized, totally unworthy of ever being mentioned again, but then it caused extreme flooding. One of Texas's worst, and it barely made it to Tropical Storm strength.

#2 Tropical Storm Zeta, 2005-2006. Talk about being shocked by the formation of a tropical storm. I don't think anyone was expecting a storm after Hurricane Epsilon. Also it has possibly the best name of any tropical cyclone ever. It's an honest shame it didn't make Hurricane Zeta.

#1 Hurricane Lenny, 1999. You all know why. Category 4 in November, which is weird enough, but the fact that it moved east is totally fascinating. Not to mention how powerful and damaging it was.

[HurricaneRyan]

I wasn't into weather until 2003, being that I was only a year old when the active period began.

so from 2003, these were the most interesting storms.
Claudette, Fabian, and Isabel (2003)
Alex, Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne (2004)
Dennis, Emily, Katrina, Rita, Wilma, Epsilon and Zeta (2005/2006)
Dean and Felix (2007)
Bertha, Dolly, Fay, Gustav, Ike, Omar, and Paloma (2008)
Bill, Fred, Grace, and Ida (2009)
Alex, Earl, Hermine, Igor, Julia, Karl, and Tomas (2010)
Irene, Katia, Lee, Maria, Ophelia, and Philippe (2011)

[Category 5]

Epsilon, no contest.

[EDR1222]

To me this is easy......Frances. Since the busy period began in 1995, she has been the only long tracking Cape Verde Hurricane to get all the way across the Atlantic and make landfall along Florida's mainland east coast........a somewhat more common path in the 20's, 30's and 40's, but a very rare path in modern times.

[Tampa Bay Hurricane]

I would choose Hurricane Jeanne based on it's almost wild loop it made east of
FL and came back at FL even though it looked like at first it was going out to sea.
Sadly, it killed thousands in the Caribbean prior to making this loop.