2004 Hurricane Season Reviews...

[Stormtrack03]

I look forward to reading everyone's summary of their thoughts of the 2004 season in the coming days as the end of november looms near.

[cyclonaut]

One to remember,thats for sure!

[cycloneye]

It will be remembered as the worst hurricane season ever for Florida especially if you consider that 2 hurricanes Frances and Jeanne made landfall almost at the same area.Also the 14/9/6 numbers show how active it was but in only a 9 week period as the early and late periods were capped.The 2004 season stands out for having 6 major canes a very high number that not too many past seasons haved been so active in the major cane category.

[sponger]

What amazes me is that in St Augustine, far from any direct hit, we lost power for a combined 10 days, spent a fortune on gas, ac, food, generator. I have yet to take direct hit....missed Andrew by 50 miles, and I dont think I want to!

[ohiostorm]

Another amazing thing... Charley, Frances, and Jeanne crossed paths in Polk County, Florida. All 3 in the same area. Thats wierd! Also, flooding from Frances and Ivan was felt as far north as Ohio and Pennsylvania. Myself had floods from both 9 days apart. Worst flooding in history here. Definately a year to remember.

[tomboudreau]

My wife and I were moving the day Ivan reached PA. Carnegie was under, in spots, 4 to 5 feet of water. We were forced to stay in the empty house that night because every road out was blocked by flood waters. We got into town just before the flooding really got going. It made for one long night with nothing to do, no food, and no telephone (cell phones were useless as the circuits were full). We just wanted to take a trip or 2 down in the cars to get boxes out of the way before Saturday's excursion with the moving truck. I swear, we can only move in floods. Day we moved from Punxsutawney, area received 6 inches of rain in just about 5 hours, and everything flooded that day too.

[SouthernWx]

The 2004 Atlantic hurricane season will be remembered as the year when powerful hurricanes finally returned to the Florida peninsula. It was something none of us born after 1960 have ever witnessed before (multiple strong hurricanes striking Florida)....but is something that has occurred in the past (1846, 1848, 1871, 1928, 1933, 1948, 1950).

We finally got a taste of what those unfortunate Floridians experienced in the 1920-1950 era. In some respects, Florida was very lucky this season. I've feared for many years that when the next powerful hurricane impacted the Florida west coast, hundreds....perhaps even thousands would perish in the storm surge. We were fortunate that Charley was extremely small, the area of severe storm surge even smaller, struck the least populated county on the SW Florida coast....and that Charley bombed in daytime when everyone was watching tv and alert.

If Charley had deepened just offshore around midnight and struck Fort Myers, Sarasota, or St Pete, IMO many more would have died.
We also were fortunate that Frances weakened dramatically over the Bahamas....when it was passing north of Puerto Rico, I was expecting a "1926 or 1928" repeat...a large cat-4 hurricane impacting Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties head on. In some respects, Jeanne could also have been much worse...if the core had come ashore only 30 miles farther south at highly populated West Palm Beach, or if the rapid deepening trend at time of landfall had begun over the western Bahamas).


The hurricanes this season were traumatic and expensive, but served the purpose of alerting Florida peninsula residents....even those inland around Orlando and Lakeland, that they are in a hurricane prone area....without the massive loss of life that could have occurred (i.e.- Sept 1926, Sept 1928).


Hurricane Ivan, while not a Florida peninsula impact, was also far less deadly than it could have been. I know the damage was devastating around Gulf Shores and Pensacola, but only 200 miles offshore, this hurricane was as large and intense (deep) as hurricanes Hugo and Carla were. If folks think Ivan was catastrophic, the damage would have been far worse if landfall had occurred with 120 kt winds and a 931 mb central pressure (would have been tied as the 2nd lowest central pressure ever recorded on the northern Gulf coast). While I don't expect four intense hurricanes to impact Florida in 2005....this season should have been a wake up call for ALL Floridians from the Keys to Georgia/ Alabama border....this wasn't unexpected by me, nor by most other hurricane experts.


I've warned Floridians on the storm boards since 2000 that a return of frequent major hurricanes was only a matter of time. Now that the new hurricane cycle is here, I expect more frequent landfalls in the Sunshine state for the next 20-30 years....and in all likelyhood, some of them will impact highly populated coastal metro counties, and probably a couple even more intense than these were (i.e.- just as large as Frances and as intense as Charley....just as the 1919, 1926, and 1928 monster hurricanes were).


PW

[Derek Ortt]

A season that caused me to work too much

Charley, a wash for Florida. Had it hit Ft Myers or Tampa, it would have missed Orlando, Daytona, and probably the Carolinas. A wash for the USA

Frances: Also a wash. While it weakened to a strong 2, it also moved slower than a senile grandma (no offense) thinks. The long duration of wind and rain caused this cane to be more devastating than Hugo:

Ivan: US landfall was icing on the cake and to be honest, almost insignificant comp[ared to what happened to Grenada, Jamaica, Cayman, and Cuba. The westward track spared already devastated Havannah western subarbs and the city itself and the Keys. NGOM was a bit unlucky that Ivan didnt weaken before it did

Jeanne: No EWRC would have likely meant a 5

also from this year:

Alex, scared me s***less when it udnerwent RI so close to the OBX when they were not evacuated. 10 miles north or west would ahve brought the worst of the wind and surge over the Islands, and likely would have killed hundreds since they wer enot evacuated

Bonnie: A waste of my time and a mere distraction from Charley

Earl: The only storm this year that didnt live up the the hype. Expected to be a major cane heading toward Texas, good old SAL took care of it in the E Carib

Gaston: There was the lucky dog pass of 2004. 12 mroe hours over the water meant a cat 3

Hermine: Exile it 3,000,000 galaxies over, please

Matthew: A typical October GOM storm

[CharleySurvivor]

This season has certainly been an experience to many of us Floridians.

I work at a home improvement store, and it is amazing to hear how people are re-building/landscaping with the word 'storm' in mind now, you would have never heard such a thing before.

Charley was a direct hit for us and Jeanne caused a lot of damages also even if it passed north of us. Some people got more damages from Jeanne then Charley.

[weatherwindow]

as with derek, i was kept inordinately busy. i do think that all the kinks are now worked out of emergency mgmt response in sfla...and certainly for the more unfortunate parts of the state. this may be the first year, in the modern era, that EVERY coastal county in fla was under a hurricane watch or warning in one season. every NWS office in the state issued a hurricane local statement at one time or another during this amazing season. i doubt that any fla resident will ever view hurricane season with our former complacency again.....just a note, the current phase of the thermohaline cycle has another couple of decade to run and, despite the improbability of this season's landfalls, a reoccurrence of strong west atlantic ridging and more frequent fla landfalls is certainly possible, if not probable