Hurricane Allen (1980) - Atlantic 2nd Strongest Hurricane

[Jim Cantore]

Nevertheless, heck of a storm was Allen. 190mph sustained winds. Cancun got lucky it didnt hit to the south.

[Deputy Van Halen]

I believe I read recently that Allen holds the record in the Atlantic basin for most time spent as a Cat 5.

Seeing the photos got me to thinking...is there some reference data somewhere with information about the SIZE of various storms as opposed to the intensity? There are lists ad nauseum of the lowest atmospheric pressures and highest wind speeds, but none of those give you any idea of how BIG the storms are.

I remember thinking the same thing when I saw the NOAA's list of the most recent direct and indirect hurricane hits for various coastal cities:

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/E24.html
(Why has this not been updated through '05???)

I noticed that Allen was listed as the last indirect hit for Corpus Christi, even though Bret (1999) was also a Cat3 at landfall, and the center of Bret came much closer to Corpus than Allen did. That's testament to the size of Allen.

[AussieMark]

Bret was very small hurricane

as such only $50 million of damages came from Bret which was a category 3 at landfall

[Aslkahuna]

Size and intensity do not correlate well. For example in WPAC, STY Tip was a very large storm but STY Rita '78 was small even though it's one of a handful of storms with a sub 880 mb pressure. Rita passed 40 miles north of us at Clark AB and all we managed was a gust to 58kt.

Steve

[HURAKAN]

Size and intensity do not correlate well. For example in WPAC, STY Tip was a very large storm but STY Rita '78 was small even though it's one of a handful of storms with a sub 880 mb pressure. Rita passed 40 miles north of us at Clark AB and all we managed was a gust to 58kt.

Steve

More information and pictures of STS Rita:
http://www.npmoc.navy.mil/jtwc/atcr/197 ... wnp/29.pdf

[flashflood]

I was in Houston at that time. All I remember is the local TV Met showing a 100% chance of rain because of the Hurricane Allen was heading towards the Texas coast. Being a kid who liked to play out in the rain, that was really good news. Well, it turned out it never even rained, even with Allen's large coverage we got nothing.

[Frank2]

Allen was my first hurricane experience with NOAA - I was a young and inexperienced 24-year-old at the time, and, can recall driving some of the HRD (NHEML at the time) staff to the old NOAA aircraft facility at MIA - unlike my usual driving skills, I was driving so fast, that, it was likely far more dangerous than anything they'd experience in the air!

At the time NOAA still had a C-130 in it's fleet, and, they were in such a hurry to leave for Barbados or Puerto Rico (I forget), that, I had to stand on top of a transporter to hand some papers through the pilot's window, before they taxied out.

It was also the last year with both my parents at home - amazing that it's now between 25-30 years ago...

Frank

P.S. It's interesting to note that at the time, some at the NHEML thought Allen might weaken due to shear and dry air east of the islands - it didn't, but, Allen was known as a hurricane with the uncanny ability to "steer itself" around any body of land in it's path - even when it approached Texas, it slowed down and weakened considerably before making landfall, so, Allen never did make landfall anywhere in it's most powerful state...

[Air Force Met]

Allen was known as a hurricane with the uncanny ability to "steer itself" around any body of land in it's path - even when it approached Texas, it slowed down and weakened considerably before making landfall, so, Allen never did make landfall anywhere in it's most powerful state...

Yeah...the NHC called it "broken field running."

Amazing storm. I remember everyone evacuating and us staying. I remember the tide rising way early. My neighbor and I had a bet on who would lose the most shingles. He lost....and we were all the way up in SW Brazoria county....

[Normandy]

Allen was known as a hurricane with the uncanny ability to "steer itself" around any body of land in it's path - even when it approached Texas, it slowed down and weakened considerably before making landfall, so, Allen never did make landfall anywhere in it's most powerful state...

Yeah...the NHC called it "broken field running."

Amazing storm. I remember everyone evacuating and us staying. I remember the tide rising way early. My neighbor and I had a bet on who would lose the most shingles. He lost....and we were all the way up in SW Brazoria county....

Goodness with that gradient it must have had some powerful winds

[f5]

how big was Allen VS KAT

[wxmann_91]

Except for 35 kt wind radii, Allen was bigger. (Source: wxman57's windfield graph of GOM canes)

[cctxhurricanewatcher]

Thank god he lost some punch before he hit the coast or that area would still be rebuilding today in some aspects.

I grew up in the RGV (lived about 40 miles inland) and was 8 years old when it hit. We had a huge China Berry tree that was uprooted which came within a foot or so of hitting or house.

[Stormtrack]

I remember Allen quite well. It really scared everybody on the upper Texas coast. We didn't evacuate although at one time it was supposed to come right at us because at the time my wife had a stomach virus and you sure don't want to be on the road with that going on. By the time she got well it was apparent it was not coming our way. The weird thing is we got about 40 mph winds but the sun was shining. Angleton, where we live, was like a ghost town. You could drive up and down the streets and not see hardly anybody. Allen's track was pretty much a straight line. They kept saying it would turn north but it never did. Another huge storm, Gilbert, in 1988, did the same thing only its straight line track was south of Allen's.