What are the 10 worst hurricanes you've ever tracked

[Jim Cantore]

1. Katrina
2. Mitch
3. Charley
4. Wilma
5. Georges
6. Ivan
7. Rita
8. Floyd
9. Frances
10. Jeanne

[Audrey2Katrina]

Well, "worst" is a fairly relative term; but if by that you mean deadly impact as well as damage on not basing it solely on this SS scale which, in all honesty isn't adequate for anything but wind speeds at this location or that; well my list would be pretty similar to that one.. although I go back to tracking since Betsy, (which was the first one I got a hurricane tracking map for), and for me I guess they'd be:
1.) Katrina
2.) Camille
3.) Charley
4.) Hugo
5.) Andrew
6.) Wilma
7.) Ivan
8.) Floyd
9.) Gilbert (Dang but we sure were terrified of that one at one time)
10.) Betsy

[wxmann_91]

1. Katrina
2. Ivan
3. Rita
4. Wilma
5. Charley
6. Jeanne
7. Frances
8. Dennis
9. Emily
10. Stan

I've only been tracking since 2004.

[CHRISTY]

i would have to say hurricane wilma kept me up all night especially that night she became the strongest hurricane ever in the atlantic ocean. i remember watching the weather channel and watching this weather channel guy freak out when the hurricane hunters reported wilma had droped over 40-50 in a very short time...i will never forget the expression on his face.sooo yea 2005 was one incredible season hopefully 2006 will be a little more quiet.

[Dr. Jonah Rainwater]

i would have to say hurricane wilma kept me up all night especially that night she became the strongest hurricane ever in the atlantic ocean. i remember watching the weather channel and watching this weather channel guy freak out when the hurricane hunters reported wilma had droped over 40-50 in a very short time...i will never forget the expression on his face.sooo yea 2005 was one incredible season hopefully 2006 will be a little more quiet.

I was glued to that too! Dave Schwartz (my favorite TWC met) was the one on the air when the 901mb report just came in...his facial expression matched mine.


1. Katrina
2. Mitch
3. Wilma
4. Charley
5. Georges
6. Ivan
7. Floyd
8. Lenny
9. Opal
10. Rita

[senorpepr]

For the Atlantic alone...

1. Mitch
2. Katrina
3. Wilma
4. Ivan
5. Charley
6. Georges
7. Floyd
8. Rita
9. Isabel
10. Opal

[Extremeweatherguy]

what do you consider worst? Is this in terms of windspeed, or surge or death toll or...? I am a little confused.

[Audrey2Katrina]

what do you consider worst? Is this in terms of windspeed, or surge or death toll or...? I am a little confused.

I asked the same question as it left that open to speculation. I think, based on the wide variety of windspeed and barometric readings, that most seem to be basing it on overall human impact and any/all weather related elements (including surge and/or flooding) it brought to areas stricken: overall cost and deaths. I guess that was left to the opinion of the poster. JMO

A2K

[Derek Ortt]

1. Mitch
2. Georges
3. Jeanne
4. Ivan
5. Wilma
6. Gordon
7. Katrina (one devastating landfall with 1200 deaths does not justify it being above those with long traisl of damage over numerous landfalls, or over a storm with 9K dead, with 7K missing)
8. Charley
9. Dennis
10. Michelle

[Audrey2Katrina]

7. Katrina (one devastating landfall with 1200 deaths does not justify it being above those with long traisl of damage over numerous landfalls, or over a storm with 9K dead, with 7K missing)

Fair enough and I can surely see that with Mitch, albeit with the exception of Gilbert I was looking at US landfalls--as hurricanes, (we were almost convinced Gilbert was heading our way and did a lot of tracking on that one ) Don't know enough about what Georges did in other areas either but unless I'm missing a lot of data on some of those other storms, those over 1400 deaths now, and a devastating landfall might just make it higher than Georges, Jeanne or Ivan...but undoubtedly you've employed a different criteria--and that's what makes it all interesting. Out of curiosity, is yours based on what you observed data-wise overall as a meteorologist following these monsters?

A2K

[Hybridstorm_November2001]

I've been tracking since 1995, so worse is a relative term. If I had to give a list of say ten off the top of my head it would be:


1. Katrina

2. Mitch (due to Caribbean deaths)

3. Ivan

4. Charely

5. Floyd

6. Georges (due to Caribbean deaths)

7. Luis

8. Fran

9. Opal

10. Fabian (which nailed Bermuda as a cat. 3)

[Derek Ortt]

mine is since 1993, and takes into accounts the impacts everywhere equally. The criterion that I use is overall deaths, damage, and the number of landfals and the intensity. A storm that makes several landfalls or near misses, like an Ivan or a Wilma, will outrank a storm like Katrina, which only made 2 true landfalls (I am counting LA/MS as a single landfall, like I count Cozemul/Cancun as a single landfall) I need to amend my list to include Dennis as well

[Derek Ortt]

Georges in 1998 went right down the chain of islands of the northern caribbean from Dt Martin to Key West. Had it not have had a SAL intrusion just ebfore hitting St martin and weakening from 135 to 100KT, it would have probably been #1 as it would have hit the Leewards, VI, and PR as a 4, and possibly the DR as well as a 4. Other landfalls likely would have been equal.

Jeanne well above Katrina, since it killed 3,000

[Audrey2Katrina]

Jeanne well above Katrina, since it killed 3,000

A valid point given the criteria you've established, albeit I don't see number of landfalls as being significant at all unless it were a number of landfalls as 3 or higher--seems I recall a storm, maybe it was Juan, or Bob... some years back that meandered all over the place--granted all in this same area but technically that sucker must've made at least half a dozen landfalls. As to Jeanne's 3,000 toll, I do recall that, mostly in Haiti if I'm right. Also I wonder if we'll ever know the final tally on Katrina since we now have over 1400 confirmed deaths and still some 2500 plus missing and unaccounted for half a year after the storm.

A2K

[Derek Ortt]

they do have to be significant landfalls, such as those shown by Ivan and Wilma. 10 landfalls as a TD or a TS does not cut it

the 3,000 dead for Jeanne was in Haiti

[JtSmarts]

Since 1996

1. Katrina
2. Charley
3. Wilma
4. Ivan
5. Rita
6. Jeanne
7. Floyd
8. Allison
9. Isabel
10. Frances


Didn't track Georges, Mitch

[Audrey2Katrina]

Well, I guess then it's interesting to know what the criteria people have used is/are. Mine after of course the fact that I had to be actually "tracking it" and it was indeed a "hurricane" (topic title, else Allison would've made my list) were 1.) Death toll, certainly no single death anywhere is to be considered insignificant, much less hundreds or thousands. Had I been tracking when Audrey hit, she'd have been on my list as well. 2.) US Landfalls primarily (no disrespect intended for other areas; I simply just didn't get into tracking them till they became threats to my area--parochial perhaps, but that was one of my criteria 3.) Cost in terms of US dollar damage to overall area impacted. 4.) Size of overall area impacted 5.) Effect/impact on the US as a nation economically as well as socially. 6.) Number of humans impacted by the storm (non-fatal). 7.) Overall impact on the environment. 8.) Intangibles including things like where I feel it will go down in history as, and finally 9.) Magnitude of storm at peak intensity (this is much lower on my list of criteria simply because I don't think that peak intensity matters much in light of the higher listed criteria; and I consider wind speeds a function albeit not always a perfect one of intensity.

Now that I think of it, I don't really recall why I didn't record a track of Mitch, probably because it was a TS when it took aim for Florida, still, had I done so it would have been on my list and Gilbert shouldn't be.

As you can see, a Katrina-like storm (or greater, God-forbid) hitting the NE, has the potential IMO to far outstrip any on that list given those standards.

Just a thought.

A2K

[Derek Ortt]

on other criterion that I also would have used and that would be those rare storms with multiple cat 5 landfalls, like Andrew. Had it been from 1992 to the present, Andrew would have been just behind Mitch due to the 2 cat 5 landfalls, plus a third cat 3 landfall

[skysummit]

Where did Andrew make 2 Cat 5 landfalls? Bahamas and Florida?

[Brent]

1. Katrina
2. Mitch(Mitch probably outranks Katrina on a global scale... but I put Katrina on top due to all the political damage it has done).
3. Charley
4. Wilma
5. Ivan
6. Georges
7. Jeanne
8. Dennis
9. Rita
10. Floyd

7 of the 10 have occurred in the last 2 seasons.