Sunday, September 28, 2008

Hurricane Names of interest

I did a little research on hurricanes. Sometimes the storms reflect the personalities for which they were named. Something like a horoscope, eh?

Danny 1997 – Danny was the only hurricane that made landfall in 1997. Starting slowly, it gained some strength. A small hurricane when compared to most. Even when the storm softened, it held its cyclonic form. Usually when most hurricanes fade into a depression, he picked up strength heading off in to the Atlantic in a hurry. Danny was one of the few to make it “all the way” to the North Atlantic.
Danny came from a weather system of non-tropical origin. On 13 July, a broad trough triggered a cluster of thunderstorms over the lower Mississippi River valley forming the storm. Hurricane Danny made its first landfall, just northwest of the Mississippi River delta. Danny was a very small hurricane, and significant effects were confined to the area immediately around the eye. The slow-moving hurricane wobbled to the east, bringing the eye to the mouth of Mobile Bay, Alabama. Danny continued to move erratically, toward the southeast over extreme southeast Alabama, while weakening to a tropical storm. The low pressure system moved over North Carolina as the center neared the Atlantic seaboard near the North Carolina/Virginia border, the cyclone began strengthening. After buffeting southeastern Massachusetts, Danny lost its remaining tropical characteristics, and turned out to sea -- for good. The cyclone was absorbed in a frontal zone over the North Atlantic. Losses from Danny were about 60 million dollars. The National Hurricane Center estimates around 100 million dollars in total damage.http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/1997danny.html

Danny 2003 Danny is back again for more. Some promise but fading away.
Hurricane Danny was a long lived Tropical Cyclone that a developed over the North Atlantic on July 16. Within 600 miles of Bermuda, Danny turned north while just achieving hurricane strength.
Danny maintained intensity for the next 24 hours! The storm headed south and degenerated into a depression on July 20. Never making landfall, Danny’s remnants formed several slow moving clockwise loops and then dissipated east of Bermuda.

Isabel 2003 – Starting out as a Category 5 ripper, she slowly stalked the Carolina Coast. The storm never wavered off course. Fortunately, the storm “eased off” from its Category 5 status to a very angry Category 1 storm just before landfall. “Eased off”, tell that to the fish!
Hurricane Isabel knocked out power to more than 5.5 million homes and businesses before weakening into a tropical depression Friday as it raced toward Canada, swamping some tidal communities along Chesapeake Bay but breezing inland with less rain than expected. A day after plowing into North Carolina's Outer Banks with 100 mph winds, Isabel moved across Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania on Friday as its winds eased to around 35 mph

Georges 1998 – Out-of-Africa, stopping at all the Caribbean hot spots and on to the Red-neck Riviera for more fun, Georges was wet, wild, and expensive.
Insured property damage estimates that Georges caused a total of $2.955 billion in damage in the United States including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, Cuba and Dominican Republic not included.
In the first 60 days or so after Georges made its final landfall in Mississippi, the American Red Cross spent $104 million on relief services in the United States Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, the Florida Keys and the Florida Panhandle. This makes it the most expensive disaster aid effort in the organization's 117-year history http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/1998georges.html

Diane 1955
- A home wrecker and unfriendly to the the mid-Atlantic coast.
Category 1, Killing 184 people put Diane at Number 13 on the deadliest hurricane list (name is retired). Diane caused heavy rains, compounding the flooding caused by Connie not even a week earlier. As Connie moved out to the north, Diane followed the storm and also struck Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Virginia, through Philadelphia and on to the Jersey shore, (no kidding.)
http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/research/roth/valate20hur.htm

Bud- 2000 A real storm that minded its own business, made a few waves, and hurt no one.
The origins of Bud can be traced to a tropical wave that emerged from the coast of Africa on 22 May. The wave generated little convection as it moved across the Atlantic and Caribbean. Although Bud passed near Socorro Island, and large waves associated with the storm likely affected portions of the Mexican coast, there are no reports of damage or casualties. http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/2000bud.html

Catherine not a used name, yet.

Michael 2000 From out of the cold, Michael loitered, gained strength, and then decided to pick on Canada. Michael was a nice storm. It gave the weather men something to do.
The precursor low-pressure system that eventually became Hurricane Michael developed as a result of an upper-level cold low that migrated southward from the mid-latitudes and interacted with a stationary front over the southeast Bahaman Islands. There were no reports of injuries or deaths as Michael traversed Newfoundland as an extratropical low pressure system. Tree and structural damage on Newfoundland was reported as being light. Damage was confined mainly to home roofs and siding, and trees being downed. http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/2000michael.html

Marie 2002 There was a Tropical Depression numbered 14; however, it never became strong enough to be named. Almost; but, Marie never happened. The name is reserved for the future.

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