Question: most people ever affected

[CrazyC83]

I'm just wondering, what is the record in both a) the Atlantic basin, and b) worldwide, for the most people directly affected by a single tropical cyclone in its lifespan?

I am considering "directly affected" as impacted by at least frequent gusts to tropical storm force (even if not sustained), OR by heavy rain capable of flooding.

[vbhoutex]

Interesting question. My guess, based on metropolitan area populations, is that any TC affecting Tokyo, Japan with a population of over 32M.
Atlantic Basin is tougher I think. My guess would be Irene with her track, except I'm not sure how many areas actually had TS or better winds.

[brunota2003]

Atlantic...there was also Floyd and Isabel which affected millions from SC/NC on up through the NE.

[CrazyC83]

That also makes me wonder, what hypothetical (yet not impossible) track would impact the most people? Here is my thinking:

* Classic Cape Verde system that basically parallels the Greater Antilles completely, making no landfalls or only brief landfalls along the way as it stays just south.

* Enters the Yucatan Channel and begins a recurve while still hitting parts of the Yucatan remaining offshore.

* Slams into southwest Florida south of Tampa Bay as a very large storm (even if not extremely intense) impacting the entire peninsula.

* Holds its own as it parallels the coast remaining just offshore. Likely would make another landfall in eastern NC.

* A slight northwest movement takes hold at the end, perhaps due to a ridge or weakening trough, and it makes landfall in NJ and NYC, like Irene did, following a similar track.

From my count, that would impact about 125-135 million people - about 37 million people in the Caribbean, about 3 million people in the Yucatan, 14 million people in Florida, 4 million people in the Carolinas and Georgia, more than 60 million people in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast and 8 million people in Canada. If it holds up as a mammoth extratropical cyclone, you could probably add another 5 million or so more in northern Europe.

I can't think of any plausible scenario that impacts the entire East Coast as well as much of the Gulf Coast while also hitting the islands from a single storm. But in a series of storms that is certainly possible.

[Hurricane Jed]

I'd say Wilma. It broke the record for affecting the most countries with 10 I think. And it hit Florida.

[Ad Novoxium]

If you want my thoughts, I really would have to say that Inez is a fairly big candidate. It got the Lesser Antilles, Hispaniola, Cuba, the Bahamas, Florida, and Mexico twice: once on the Yucatan, then the main portion. Donna would also be a likely candidate. Just about everything from the Leewards up to Canada got hit, including hurricane winds in every state from Florida to Maine.

[euro6208]

tropical cyclone landfall over luzon then reemerges in the south china sea, affects taiwan, southern china,eastern china, the koreas then heads east to japan...that's over 300 million people or more...

[Ptarmigan]

A storm like Floyd, Irene, Donna or Wilma would impact a lot of people for the Atlantic. I think some of those typhoons have the potential to affect way more people. I think also North Indian Ocean tropical cyclones can affect many people, well in the millions.

Now, if there was a continent sized hypercane, that would affect a lot of people.

[HurricaneBelle]

I would have to go with Donna, which started out causing a plane to crash in Dakar before it even hit the Atlantic waters, went through the NE Leeward Islands, passed 70 miles N of Puerto Rico, went through the Bahamas, the Florida Straits, made landfall on the SW FL coast, crossed the state exiting near Daytona and then ran the length of the Eastern seaboard, making final landfall on Long Island, New York.

[CrazyC83]

I did a calculation for Irene, using every county that had at least reports of such winds , being gusts of at least 39 mph or damage that would support such, such as at least scattered trees and power lines down, OR rainfall of at least 1 inch (although the TS gust wind field was larger than the rain extent). There were 342 counties in 16 states+DC that had such. The approximate western extent was a diagonal line from near Durham, NC to Syracuse, NY.

My county-based estimate was that 74.3 million people were impacted by Irene in the CONUS alone. Most likely about 90 million people along the entire track were impacted.

[CrazyC83]

BTW, numerous Florida counties (those that I could find a 39+ report) are included as well.

[Cyclenall]

For the Atlantic basin, my vote goes towards Hurricane Donna. Another one might be Hurricane Georges.

[CrazyC83]

How big was Donna and how far west of the center - while in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast - did TS winds penetrate?

[Ptarmigan]

How big was Donna and how far west of the center - while in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast - did TS winds penetrate?

This is the only info I can find on Donna in Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. I don't think it is really accurate though as it is from Best Track.

AL0560 DONNA 091000 1960 24.2 80.1 120 932 -99 -99 -99 -99 165142131150 96 87 82 91 69 64 61 66 *
AL0560 DONNA 091006 1960 24.7 80.7 115 932 -99 -99 -99 -99 169146133152 97 88 82 90 68 63 60 65 *
AL0560 DONNA 091012 1960 25.3 81.3 120 938 -99 -99 -99 -99 170151133147 99 92 84 90 71 66 62 66 *
AL0560 DONNA 091018 1960 26.2 81.7 115 950 -99 -99 -99 -99 175162135145 100 95 84 88 70 67 61 64 *
AL0560 DONNA 091100 1960 27.3 81.9 105 960 -99 -99 -99 -99 178174139142 98 96 83 84 67 66 59 59 *
AL0560 DONNA 091106 1960 28.5 81.7 100 969 -99 -99 -99 -99 174189146136 94100 84 80 64 67 58 56 *
AL0560 DONNA 091112 1960 29.9 80.8 90 970 -99 -99 -99 -99 165201151128 86 98 81 72 57 63 54 49 *
AL0560 DONNA 091118 1960 31.4 79.5 90 966 -99 -99 -99 -99 165211158128 86102 84 72 57 65 56 50 *
AL0560 DONNA 091200 1960 33.1 78.0 95 958 -99 -99 -99 -99 176219163135 94109 89 79 63 71 61 55 *
AL0560 DONNA 091206 1960 35.0 76.9 90 0 -99 -99 -99 -99 174230166132 91109 88 75 60 69 59 52 *
AL0560 DONNA 091212 1960 37.3 74.8 95 965 -99 -99 -99 -99 180245178138 97119 96 81 65 76 65 56 *
AL0560 DONNA 091218 1960 40.0 73.1 90 0 -99 -99 -99 -99 188257180139 97120 95 79 64 75 63 54 *
AL0560 DONNA 091300 1960 43.1 71.2 75 0 -99 -99 -99 -99 171255170121 80104 80 63 49 60 49 0 *
AL0560 DONNA 091306 1960 46.6 68.9 60 0 -99 -99 -99 -99 130217139 90 53 74 55 0 0 0 0 0 E
AL0560 DONNA 091312 1960 50.0 66.0 55 0 -99 -99 -99 -99 113197130 81 0 63 0 0 0 0 0 0 E
AL0560 DONNA 091318 1960 53.1 62.5 45 0 -99 -99 -99 -99 69131 87 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 E

Best Track
ftp://rammftp.cira.colostate.edu/demari ... oradii.txt

Read Me
ftp://rammftp.cira.colostate.edu/demari ... readme.txt

[Hurricane Jed]

Idk if there is really any way of telling which storm affected the most people. Three questions pop up in my mind. Do you count the people that have evacuated as having been affected by the storm even though they aren't present during the storm? If a small shower breaks off a rain band and drops three drops of rain on someone's farm does that count or what qualifies as being affected? Finally if a storm hits land and then loses its tropical characteristics or merges with another system do you count the people affected after it does so?

[CrazyC83]

Idk if there is really any way of telling which storm affected the most people. Three questions pop up in my mind. Do you count the people that have evacuated as having been affected by the storm even though they aren't present during the storm? If a small shower breaks off a rain band and drops three drops of rain on someone's farm does that count or what qualifies as being affected? Finally if a storm hits land and then loses its tropical characteristics or merges with another system do you count the people affected after it does so?

For my calculation estimates, I counted the county population where either 1 inch of rain or gusts to TS winds are reported, or coastal counties with damaging storm surges.

[tolakram]

How would you count a storm like Ike? We were hit with 70mph winds way up here, but of course it wasn't a Tropical Storm at the time. Without Ike, though, we would have never gotten those winds.

[somethingfunny]

Hurricane Katrina, because every corner of America was affected by the aftermath of evacuations and relocations, economic shocks from oil and the port being shut down, and the political effects of the government's response. In fact given that was the singular event that seemed to end America's love affair with George W Bush, you could say it affected the entire world by altering the voting patterns of Americans in 2006 and 2008.

[vbhoutex]

Interesting comments on both Ike and Katrina. Without completely specific parameters set, both become candidates. However, I think for the ATL it would probably be Irene based on population density and track vs Donna. There is no doubt that Katrina literally changed the fabric of America.

[CrazyC83]

Interesting comments on both Ike and Katrina. Without completely specific parameters set, both become candidates. However, I think for the ATL it would probably be Irene based on population density and track vs Donna. There is no doubt that Katrina literally changed the fabric of America.

I'm going on directly impacted by the storm though. Ike might be another contender, although I would have to go through the wind data for that one.