Small no-name hurricane? Englewood FL, early 80's

[Cyclone1]

My grandparents went on vacation to Englewood, FL, sometime in the early 80's. They say, when they were down there, a tropical cyclone spun up off the coast within a few hours, making landfall and bringing wind gusts of up to 90mph. Storm surge apparently flooded the area, and caused a bit of damage. My grandfather's boat was on the news because the waters rose too quickly to untie it from the dock, nearly sinking it. It made headline news and was called the no-name storm.

They can't remember the year, or the time of year, but they say it had to be in the early 80's, sometime in the late spring/early summer.

Has anyone ever heard of this? I cannot find any information on it.

[Aric Dunn]

do you know what month..

[Cyclone1]

Not for sure, but they said most likely May. I looked at the June, 1982 subtrop, but it was way to north and too weak.

[Aric Dunn]

it was in 1982.. i trying to find a offical source hang on


june 1982

[Cyclone1]

Oh, really? Wow, thanks! May, 1982?

[Cyclone1]

Oh, June. If you're talking about the 1982 subtropical storm, I've already looked atthat and it looked too far north to be that bad on Englewood.

[Aric Dunn]

Storm path
Storm path

The subtropical storm had a unusual formation by forming from an interaction of three different systems near the Yucatán. This occurrence is unusual but not unique as Subtropical Storm One of the 1974 Atlantic hurricane season did so as well.[1] A reconnaissance flight on June 17 reported that there appeared to be multiple transient circulations at the surface, but no well-defined center.[2] The multiple circulations merged creating a strong trough over the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The first disturbance can be traced back two days before in the northwest Caribbean Sea. The disturbance moved north and then a low-pressure center formed over the Yucatán Peninsula. Conditions in the Gulf of Mexico were favorable for tropical storm formation, however westerly wind shear forced the system to not strengthen.[2] Some severe weather had been occurring over the Florida Peninsula as early as June 16, as the fringes of disturbance moved across the Florida Straits and over the Peninsula.

A subtropical depression formed on June 18 in the Gulf of Mexico.[3] The subtropical depression gained subtropical storm status over Florida. The storm was not named because the policy at the time was not to name subtropical cyclones. After crossing the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the storm moved east and remained far out to sea, so the subtropical storm did not significantly affect the east coast of Virginia. Even though the pressures remained low, the storm expanded and became distorted. The subtropical storm entered the Canadian Hurricane Center (then known as Maritimes Weather Center)'s area of responsibility on June 20 and was declared extratropical near Atlantic Canada the same day.[4]

[edit] Preparations

[HurricaneBelle]

My grandparents went on vacation to Englewood, FL, sometime in the early 80's. They say, when they were down there, a tropical cyclone spun up off the coast within a few hours, making landfall and bringing wind gusts of up to 90mph. Storm surge apparently flooded the area, and caused a bit of damage. My grandfather's boat was on the news because the waters rose too quickly to untie it from the dock, nearly sinking it. It made headline news and was called the no-name storm.

They can't remember the year, or the time of year, but they say it had to be in the early 80's, sometime in the late spring/early summer.

Has anyone ever heard of this? I cannot find any information on it.

They were probably thinking of this storm.

The 90mph wind gusts were an exaggeration, it hit the west coast of FL with low-end tropical storm force winds, although there was a lot of severe weather (and a few tornadoes - maybe that's where they got the 90mph winds from) out ahead of the system before it made landfall. I remember it well, going to bed and seeing Channel 10's Dick Fletcher mention a vague disturbance in the gulf that night on the 11PM news, and then waking up in the middle of the night, and saying "what the heck is that?" as the TS-force winds were blowing where we lived in Clearwater.

For another sudden "storm" in the middle of the night that made a surprise impact on the W coast of FL and the Tampa Bay area, check this one out. It may very well have been discussed on this board (although it was completely non-tropical), but coming so soon after Frances and Jeanne, it was deja vu all over again.

[Cyclone1]

Yeah, that's the subtrop. I knew about that one, but the storm my grandparents told me about apperently sprung up off the coast in a matter of hours. Maybe it was the 82 one, but the descriptions don't really match.

[Aric Dunn]

that is the only thing that is in the 80's.. it has to be it..

[Cyclone1]

I guess it was that storm. Hmm, I just thought it would have been a lot smaller and more tropical than the coast wide cold-front-ish storm that 82 sub-trop was. I guess I was wrong. Thanks!

The past three years of my life trying to find this storm amount to a storm I already knew exsisted. LOL!

[Terry]

1982 was a bad, quick forming storm on the barrier islands south of Tampa Bay. I remember it because I was in Houston and my husband was with friends on Longboat Key. It formed outta the blue and the surf washed across the islands.

The only other events of note were much later on.

[caneman]

We've seen several of those of no name type of winter storms. like Hurricane Belle show in her 2nd paragraph. Man they are a lot like a Nor'Easter. We're very exposed here on the West coast to those winter storms. And they can whip up fast and hit hard.

[HURAKAN]

[Cyclone1]

Wow, I guess it did have heavy effects on the Englewood area.