2012 Hurricane Related Anniversaries
5th anniversary (2007)
Severe Tropical Cyclone George – Made landfall in Port Hedland, Australia in early March killing three people. This was the strongest cyclone to hit the area since 1975.
Super Cyclone Gonu – First named Category 5 tropical cyclone in the Arabian Sea, it made landfall on the Arabian peninsula, causing $4 billion in damages and 49 deaths.
Hurricane Dean – Reached Cat 5 status just prior to striking the Yucatan peninsula causing 44 deaths.
Hurricane Felix – Rapidly intensified into a Cat 5 hurricane in the central Caribbean Sea, and regained this strength prior to making landfall in Nicaragua. 133 people died and $50 million in damages as a result.
Hurricane Humberto – Reached hurricane strength just before making landfall in Texas and only eleven hours after being named a tropical storm.
Hurricane Henriette – Made landfall on both the Baja peninsula and Mexican mainland as a hurricane, causing 7 deaths.
Typhoon Krosa – Caused $1.7 billion in damage to Taiwan.
Hurricane Noel – A late season storm, it became the third tropical cyclone penetrated by an unmanned Aerosonde.
Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Sidr – First named Category 5 tropical cyclone in the Bay of Bengal. Its landfall in Bangladesh resulted in over 3400 dead.
10th anniversary (2002)
Typhoon Chataan – Ravaged the western Pacific islands in Chuuk Lagoon as a tropical storm, dropping 20 inches of rain in 24 hours and causing mudslides that killed 43 people. It passed over Guam a few days later as a Category 2 typhoon, inflicting over $80 million in damage.
Hurricane Lili – Hit Louisiana in early October, resulting in $860 million in damage.
Hurricane Kenna – The third-strongest east Pacific hurricane to strike the Mexican west coast, Kenna resulted in $96 million in damage but only four deaths, due to timely evacuations.
Typhoon Pongsona – One of the worst typhoons to strike Guam, it caused over $800 million in damages, left the island without power for weeks, and resulted in the fuel farm catching fire and burning for several days; but caused no casualties.
15th anniversary (1997)
NOAA’s G-IV high altitude jet becomes operational.
GPS dropsondes are released into the eyewall of Hurricane Guillermo revealing high resolution soundings of the near-surface wind structure.
Very Severe Tropical Cyclone BOB 01 – Made landfall near Chittagong on the north side of the Bay of Bengal, killing 67 people.
Hurricane Linda – Becomes the strongest estimated hurricane in the East Pacific basin. Linda plowed
over Socorro Island near its peak intensity doing considerable damage, but there are no casualties. It also produces high waves along the Mexican and California coasts.
Hurricane Pauline – Dumping rain on Mexico’s Pacific coast caused between 200 to 400 casualties, making it the deadliest east Pacific hurricane since 1976.
Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite is launched. Within a day of becoming operational it passes over Tropical Storm Paka and on subsequent passes monitors the storm as it intensifies.
Super Typhoon Paka – Struck Guam in mid-December, resulting in major damage ($800 million), but causing no direct deaths. Paka was the last typhoon in the hyperactive 1997 western Pacific typhoon season that set a record with ten Category Five storms forming.
20th anniversary (1992)
Tropical cyclone tracks from NCEP’s Aviation Model are made available.
Hurricane Lester – A minimal hurricane when it struck the Baja peninsula, it never-the-less maintains
tropical storm status in its passage over northern Mexico into Arizona. It caused three deaths in Mexico and
dumps rain on the American southwest as Hurricane Andrew is making landfall in south Florida.
Hurricane Andrew – A wake-up call for south Florida, which hadn’t experienced a hurricane in over 25 years. Andrew’s overall total of deaths was 65 and $26 billion in damage in its path over the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana. Its Florida landfall is later upgraded to Category 5, making Andrew the third Cat 5 to strike the mainland US in history.
Super Typhoon Omar – With over a foot of rain falling on Guam, Omar passed over the island as a Category 3 typhoon and caused over $500 million in damage. It was also responsible for two deaths in Taiwan. Hurricane Iniki – struck the island of Kauai in Hawai’i, the first hurricane to hit the archipelago since 1982. It resulted in $2 billion in damage and took six lives.
25th anniversary (1987)
The Air Force disbands its Typhoon Chaser squadrons.
The Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) satellite becomes operational and subsequently becomes an important platform for monitoring tropical cyclones.
Super Typhoon Lynn (Pepang) – Killed 42 people in Taiwan as the result of the worst flooding the island had seen in 40 years.
Super Typhoon Nina (Sisang) – caused over 1000 casualties in the Philippines.
30th anniversary (1982)
The first Synoptic Flow experiment is flown by the Hurricane Research Division around Hurricane Debby in order to better define the steering currents around the storm.
Rick Anthes publishes “Tropical Cyclones: Their Evolution, Structure, and Effects”.
Hugh Willoughby, Jean Clos, and Mohamed Shoreibah publish a paper describing the Eyewall Replacement Cycle paradigm.
Super Typhoon Bess – Brought 59 deaths to southern Honshu when it made landfall in Japan.
Hurricane Paul – As a tropical depression, it brought heavy rains to Guatemala and El Salvador, resulting in over 1400 dead. Its later Mexican landfall as a Category 2 hurricane resulted in only 24 casualties.
1982 was the last year of funding for Project STORMFURY, the U.S. Government’s experiment to test the theory that seeding hurricanes with silver iodide could disrupt their circulation.
35th anniversary (1977)
Long-term Monitoring research flights into Hurricane Anita observe changes in storm structure that leads to the Eyewall Replacement Cycle paradigm. Anita makes landfall in northern Mexico as a Category 5 storm
and kills ten people.
Typhoons Thelma and Vera deliver a one-two punch to Taiwan, where wide-spread flooding not seen in over 80 years cause over fifty deaths and heavy crop damage.
A cyclone striking India’s Bay of Bengal coast causes over 10,000 deaths.
40th anniversary (1972)
CLIPER, a statistical hurricane forecast scheme, is developed by Charlie Neumann and John Hope.
Bob Burpee publishes paper on the origin and structure of African Easterly Waves.
Roland Madden and Paul Julian describe a global scale pressure wave which seems to enhance tropical convection known as the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO).
Hurricane Agnes – A minor hurricane at landfall, Agnes brings torrential rains along the eastern seaboard, causing $2 billion in damages and 122 casualties.
45th anniversary (1967)
The National Hurricane Center is separated from the Miami National Weather Service office and becomes an independent forecast center.
Hurricane Beulah – Passing south of Puerto Rico, Beulah remains within range of San Juan radar for over a day. An eyewall replacement is witnessed and photographed by Weather Bureau personnel. Eventually, the hurricane makes landfall in Brownsville, TX and causes 58 deaths and $217 million in damage on its rampage through the Caribbean and Gulf of America.
Super Typhoon Sara – Struck Wake Island on the 15th anniversary of Typhoon Olive hitting the island.
50th anniversary (1962)
Project STORMFURY, a joint experiment carried out by the Weather Bureau and U.S. Navy, is officially inaugurated (although the first seeding experiment was carried out in 1961.) The Project aims to test the hypothesis that seeding mature hurricanes with silver iodide will weaken the storms.
Typhoon Opal – Struck Taiwan with 165 mph winds, where it caused over 80 deaths. But in a weakened state it continued to cause considerable damage to China, Korea, and Japan.
Typhoon Wanda – The second worst typhoon in recorded history to strike Hong Kong. It killed over 400 people and caused millions in property damage to the Crown Colony.
Super Typhoon Karen – Devastates Guam with Category 5 winds, damaging 97% of the island’s buildings.
55th anniversary (1957)
Hurricane Audrey – Struck Louisiana in late June, causes a 10 foot storm surge in Cameron, resulting in 430 dead.
The newly formed National Hurricane Research Project deploys an evaluation team to the Audrey landfall area to make crucial surge measurements before clean-up efforts destroy evidence.
60th anniversary (1952)
Typhoon Olive – becomes only the second recorded typhoon to strike Wake Island causing over a million dollars in damage. Most structures on the island are destroyed.
65th anniversary (1947)
Typhoon Kathleen dumps heavy rains on Japan, over 1000 people drown in the floods.
A Category 4 hurricane hits Ft. Lauderdale then continues into the Gulf of America to strike eastern Louisiana. It causes over fifty deaths and $110 million in damage.
A weak hurricane in early October dumps heavy rains over south Florida, leaving many neighborhoods flooded for weeks. This leads to the formation of the South Florida Water Management District. Later, Project Cirrus, a cooperative experiment between General Electric and the U.S. Navy, dumps dry ice into this hurricane while it’s 400 miles east of Jacksonville. The storm swerves westward and hits Savannah, GA a day and a half later. Hurricane modification remains a taboo subject for a decade.
80th anniversary (1932)
A ‘surprise’ hurricane strikes Freeport, TX with only 4 hours warning. Galveston was cutoff from the mainland by this storm. City officials advocate that U.S. Coast Guard cutters be deployed on ‘storm patrols’ to provide better warnings.
1932 Bahamas Hurricane – A Category Five storm rakes Abaco killing 16 and causing great damage throughout the islands.
San Ciprian Hurricane – Passing over the length of Puerto Rico, the storm kills 225 people and causes $30 million in damage.
1932 Cuba Hurricane – A late season storm that passed over the eastern third of Cuba at Category Four strength, leaving over 3000 dead.
85th anniversary (1927)
The Nova Scotia Hurricane of 1927 – Passed over the Canadian Maritimes in mid-August, causing 184 deaths and a million dollars of damage.