2014 Hurricane-Related Anniversaries
2009 5th anniversary
• Typhoon Morakot was the deadliest typhoon to strike Taiwan.
• Typhoon Ketsana struck the Philippines killing about 800. Parma followed a week later, killing about 500.
2004 10th anniversary
• Jason Dunion and Chris Velden demonstrate the inhibiting effect the Saharan Air Layer has on tropical cyclone development
• OAR scientist Evan B. Forde spearhead a team of NOAA scientists that partnered with the National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) to produce a science and safety poster on severe weather hazards. Fifty thousand copies of the poster were mailed to science teachers across America and at the height of its popularity, the poster was seen by an estimated 8 million students per day.
• Mike Montgomery, Eric Hendricks, and Chris Davis publish a paper defining Vortical Hot Towers and their formation and role in tropical cyclones,
• Tropical Storm Bonnie and Hurricane Charley hit Florida within 24 hours of each other. It’s True.
• Four hurricanes, Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne, strike Florida in one year, setting a new record.
• Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne strike the same area of Florida just 21 days apart. Most debris from the first hurricane is not cleared by the time of the second one’s arrival at Sewall’s Point.
• After Hurricane Ivan’s landfall in the Florida panhandle, its remnants moved over the Atlantic, looped back across Florida into the Gulf of America, reformed into a Tropical Storm, making landfallng in Louisiana. Ivan also had one of the lowest central pressures ever measured in the Atlantic (910 mb).
• Cyclone Gafilo was the most intensity TC ever in the Southwest Indian Ocean. It struck Madagascar killing about 500.
• Cyclone Fay was one of the strongest TCs ever to hit Australia, but in a very sparsely populated region. Still, it cause great damage to gold mining operations due to flooding.
• Cyclone Catarina in the South Atlantic struck Brazil
• Typhoon Sudal was the strongest storm to strike Yap in over 50 years.
• Typhoon Rananim was the strongest typhoon to hit Zhejiang since 1956, killing 169 people.
• A tropical depression, designated Winnie by Pagasa, killed about 1600 in the Philippines.
1999 15th anniversary
• Cyclones Vance and Elaine strike Western Australia within days of each other followed weeks later by Cyclone Gwenda. Vance then Gwenda set record high gusts for Australian cyclones.
• Hurricane Bret rapidly intensifies in Gulf of America prior to its Texas landfall.
• Hurricane Floyd causes a massive evacuation from coastal zones from northern Florida to the Carolinas. It comes ashore in North Carolina and results in nearly 80 dead and $4.5 billion in damages.
• Typhoon Bart ravages Okinawa and Japan killing 48 people and causing $5 billion in damage.
• Hurricane Irene sneaks up on south Florida where its heavy rains cause $260 million in damage.
• Orissa/Odisha Cyclone, strongest TC in the North Indian Ocean, killed about 10K people.
• Pakistan cyclone kills about 6400.
1994 20th anniversary
• Mark DeMaria and John Kaplan publish first paper on the Statistical Hurricane Intensity Scheme (SHIPS)
• Hurricane/Typhoon John becomes longest-lasting and the farthest-traveling tropical cyclone on record, passing from the East Pacific to the West Pacific then back again. It’s over 7000 mile track lasted for 31 days.
• The Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies inaugurates their website, offering both real-time and experimental satellite imagery.
• Cyclone Geralda was one of the strongest to hit Madagascar, killing about 300.
• Cyclone Rewa lasted for 28 days in the South Pacific.
1989 25th anniversary
• Non-developing tropical depressions are added to the hurricane database.
• Hurricane Hugo makes a direct hit on Charleston, SC and causes over 20 casualties. NOAA mission into Hugo experiences engine shutdown during eyewall penetration. Aircraft returns to Barbados but is out of commission for the rest of hurricane season.
• BAM, the Beta and Advection Model, becomes operational and VICBAR, a nested barotropic hurricane track forecast model is developed.
• Typhoon Gay kills over 800 people in Thailand.
• Cyclone Orson was one of the strongest TCs to make landfall in Australia, but struck a very sparsely populated region.
1984 30th anniversary
• William Gray and his Colorado State team issue the first hurricane seasonal forecast.
• Hurricane Diana loops off Carolina coast dumping heavy rains before making landfall.
• Typhoon Vanessa (Reming) became one of the strongest typhoons ever, with estimated central pressure of 880 mb. Its estimated pressure fell 100 mb in just 48 h. Though it did not directly impact land, the outer bands caused flooding in the Philippines and killed 63 people.
• Typhoon Ike (Nitang) struck the Philippines, killing about 1400.
• Typhoon Agnes (Undang) struck the Philippines kill about 1200.
1979 35th anniversary
• Men’s names added to Atlantic hurricane list.
• Neumann and Brian Jarvinen develop SHIFOR, a statistical scheme to forecast hurricane intensity, used as a benchmark for intensity forecast skill scores.
• The First Global GARP Experiment (FGGE) attempts to delineate a world-wide profile of the the Earth atmosphere during two intense observation periods in the winter and summer.
• NOAA research airplane travels to Australia and flies into Severe Cyclone Kerry and Tropical Cyclone Rosa. Kerry was notable for its long and erratic path.
• Hurricane David chews a path of destruction through eastern Caribbean islands and the Bahamas before brushing up U.S. East Coast.
• Hurricane Frederic intensifies over the Gulf of America before impacting the U.S. Gulf coast.
• Typhoon Tip is one of the largest and most intense tropical cyclones on record. Record lowest surface pressure (870 mb)
1974 40th anniversary
• The Navy disbands its Hurricane Hunter squadrons.
• The GARP Atlantic Tropical Experiment (GATE) in the east Atlantic measures tropical waves as they come off the African coast.
• Hurricane Carmen strikes Louisiana.
• Hurricane Fifi inundates Honduras and Belize, leaving over 8000 people dead.
• Typhoon Bess claims an Air Force Typhoon Chaser C-130 with the loss of the six man crew.
• Cyclone Tracy devastates Darwin, Australia.
1969 45th anniversary
• Vic Ooyama creates 2D hurricane computer simulation.
• Project BOMEX attempts to define the air-sea fluxes in the tropical Atlantic.
• Typhoon Viola kills over 1000 in Guangdong, China.
• Project STORMFURY seeds Hurricane Debbie on two days. It is the most successful implementation of the experiment to date.
• Hurricane Camille strikes Mississippi coast as only the second Category Five hurricane recorded in US history. She leaves 260 dead in her wake.
• NHC director Simpson works with engineer Herb Saffir to modify the latter’s hurricane damage scale to include wind speed regimes, creating the Saffir-Simpson scale.
1964 50th anniversary
• Banner Miller and Peter Chase create NHC-64, the first in a long line of statistical-dynamical track forecast programs. It is first used operationally during 1964 hurricane season.
• National Hurricane Center extends specific position forecasts out to 72 hours.
• Hurricane Cleo strikes Miami, Florida.
• Hurricane Dora strikes St. Augustine, Florida.
• Hurricane Hilda strikes Louisiana.
1959 55th anniversary
• The Joint Typhoon Warning Center is formed in Guam, combining the Navy and Air Force Pacific forecasting efforts.
• Dunn and NHRP researchers begin a five year program to study hurricane track forecasts and evaluated various objective techniques.
• Hurricane Gracie strikes South Carolina.
• Super typhoon Joan struck Taiwan, killing 11. Though weakened, it made landfall in China, killing 3.
1954 60th anniversary
• Tropical depression detected by camera on a Navy rocket. This demonstrates the utility of weather observations from space.
• Hurricane Centers begin issuing 24 hour forecasts with specific latitude/longitude positions
• Hurricanes Carol and Edna strike New England in succession.
• Bob Simpson flies last of his ‘piggyback’ research missions on an Air Force reconnaissance flight into Hurricane Edna, is joined by Edward R. Murrow and his CBS “See It Now’ crew.
• Hurricane Hazel slams into the Carolinas and causes destruction all the way to Toronto. Grady Norton dies during the ongoing effort to forecast this storm.
• Typhoon Vera (Isewan Typhoon) was the strongest typhoon to strike Japan. An estimated 5100 people were killed.
1944 70th anniversary
• The Great Atlantic hurricane sweeps up the eastern seaboard and causes 390 casualties, mostly at sea. This is the first hurricane with scheduled aircraft reconnaissance and the first radar depiction of a hurricane eye and spiral rainbands.
• Major Harry Wexler and Lloyd Woods fly into Great Atlantic hurricane and find that updrafts are confined to a small area near the eye.
• Herbert Riehl and Major Robert Shafer find that large vertical wind shear is inimical to tropical cyclone formation and development.
• USAAF establishes forecast center on Saipan in support of bombing missions on Japan. Forecasters begin the practice of naming typhoons after their wives.
• Typhoon “Cobra” strikes Halsey’s fleet east of the Philippines. Three ships are sunk and 790 sailors die in the storm.
1939 75th anniversary
• Father Charles Deppermann, of the Manila observatory, publishes “Some Characteristics of Philippine Typhoons” in which he presents a theoretical model of tropical cyclones.
1934 80th anniversary
• A weak tropical storm over Central America causes nearly 3000 deaths from its torrential rains. It would later make landfall as a hurricane in Louisiana and claim another six people.
1924 90th anniversary
• Charles Mitchell publishes “West Indies Hurricanes and other Tropical Cyclones” in Monthly Weather Review. Traces many hurricanes to disturbances near Cape Verde Islands.
1919 95th anniversary
• Florida Keys/Corpus Christi hurricane first kills over 770 people in the Florida Keys before moving over the Gulf of America to strike Corpus Christi, Texas. There a six-year old Bob Simpson escapes the storm surge and witnesses the storm’s destruction.
1909 105th anniversary
• Velasco hurricane killed 41 people and caused $2 million in damage to Texas coast.
• Grand Isle hurricane strikes western tip of Cuba and then Grand Isle, Louisiana killing some 400 people and causing $11 million in damage.
1899 115th anniversary
• Cyclone Mahina strikes Bathurst Bay in Australia was wipes out the pearling fleet. A storm surge of 14.5 m was estimated, the highest in a TC.
1879 135th anniversary
• Father Federico Faura, first director of the Jesuits’ Manila Observatory, makes the first typhoon forecast.
1874 (140th anniversary)
• Bengal cyclone kills approximately 80,000.
1869 145th anniversary
• Saxby’s Gale hits the Bay of Fundy causing great destruction when the storm surge combines with astronomical high tides predicted by Lt. Stephen Saxby RN.
1839 175th anniversary
• Coringa cyclone strikes eastern India with over 300,000 deaths.
1789 225th anniversary
• The Great Coringa Cyclone hits eastern India with over 20,000 deaths.
1609 405th anniversary
• The British ship /Sea Venture/ is damaged by a hurricane but manages to find refuge on uninhabited Bermuda archipelago. The islands become a British colony and the incident inspires Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.”
1494 520th anniversary
• During his second voyage, Christopher Columbus shelters his fleet from a tropical cyclone, resulting in the first written European account of a hurricane.