Another first in this bizarre hurricane season

[SouthernWx]

First we had hurricane Alex become the strongest hurricane to ever reach major hurricane intensity north of 39° N.

Then we witnessed hurricane Charley set several records: 1) the earliest in the season major hurricane to ever strike the Florida peninsula...2) the most intense hurricane (130 kts) to ever make landfall along the Florida SW coast....3) and the first major hurricane of record to make landfall along the Florida west coast during August.

Today we witnessed the explosion of hurricane Ivan into a major hurricane south of 10° north....the lowest latitude a major hurricane in the Atlantic basin ever attained that status.

We also may have witnessed another first for the Atlantic basin last night. Why? Because I can find no record of a Cape Verde hurricane coming into the Bahamas as a cat-4 or 5....and on an eventual path into southern Florida that didn't impact the sunshine state with at least cat-3 intensity. Before Frances, most cat-4 hurricanes in the Bahamas area heading toward eventual landfall in southern Florida (Andrew, Donna, Sept 1947, Sept 1928, 1926 great Miami hurricane, etc) ended up blasting Florida as cat-4/5's.

Floridians were extremely fortunate Frances failed to deepen while slowly crossing the Gulf Stream last night....extremely fortunate.

[Cookiely]

Thank you God for dry air and wind shear.

[obxhurricane]

Just for the record...Ivan did not become a mjor hurricane south of 10 N...it just reachedhurricane status south of 10 N...and was the strongest to do so. I believe it was north of 10 when it reached major status.

[SouthernWx]

Thank you God for dry air and wind shear.

The shear and dry air did their part, but another reason Frances weakened so much (much more than would normally have occurred over such warm waters) was the exceeding slow forward speed....prolonging both the effects of shear AND interaction with the Bahamian islands.

I noted on the satellite imagery that Frances began to weaken slightly after striking Rum Cay ....then weaken quicker while passing over San Salvador and slowing to a crawl. In a normal scenario for that area, the hurricane would have continued west or wnw at a good clip (15-18 mph) and still made landfall over southern Florida as a major hurricane. Frances might not have been a 145 mph landfalling hurricane in Florida, but a hurricane that large takes time for shear and dry air to take it's toll. If Frances had been moving 15 mph and directly toward PBI instead of crawling across Cat Island, Eleuthera, Abaco, and Grand Bahama Island, the eye would have crossed the Florida coast before significant weakening occurred (would have still likely been a strong cat-3 hurricane instead of strong cat-2).

[SouthernWx]

Just for the record...Ivan did not become a mjor hurricane south of 10 N...it just reachedhurricane status south of 10 N...and was the strongest to do so. I believe it was north of 10 when it reached major status.

I stand corrected...thank you

[bahamaswx]

If Cuba doesn't weaken TC's, we certainly don't.

[Hurricanehink]

Looks like another record wasn't broken. This was a Cat. 4 in the Bahamas, but hit Florida as a Cat. 2.

So was this one.

[bahamaswx]

He said Cape Verde hurricane. 1929 Hurricane #2 certainly doesn't qualify, and 1926 Hurricane #1 only qualifies as a Cape Verde storm if you don't set a particular boundary the wave has to become a TC by (such as 50W).

[Hurricanehink]

Oh, woops about the first one, but the 1926 one should count as it originated from a Tropical Wave (I assume) that came off the Coast of Africa.

[wx247]

Hurricanehink... neither one of those are Cape Verde hurricanes.

[tropicana]

...and of course... the record for most named storms ever in August was also set this year... 8 named storms, breaking the previous record of 7 named storms in 1995.

AUGST 2004 as everyone knows already came on the heels of one of the quietest starts to any Hurricane Season..with no depressions or even sub-tropical depressions right through til July 30.
Then all hell broke loose LOL

ALEX is counted because it was actually named on AUGUST 1st, even though it was at depression status on July 31.


-justin-

[frankthetank]

Is this incredible hurricane season happening because the Atlantic overall is warming (JB mentions this i think)? or is it just an abnormal year? thanks

[TLHR]

Many believe it is part of a 30-year cycle.

As water evaporates over the ocean, the ocean gets saltier. This breeds more hurricanes. These excess hurricanes dump rain and restore salinity levels.

Repeat every 30 years....

[donsutherland1]

Justin,

1950 was a season which was short but explosive.

The first named storm did not develop until August 12. By the end of that season there had been 13 named storms and 11 hurricanes. 8 of those hurricanes were major hurricanes:

Category 5: 1
Category 4: 2
Category 3: 5

In addition, two Category 3 hurricanes (Easy and King) made landfall in Florida.