1985-1989

1985

So this season was pretty interesting and active. Probably the best season of the 1980s. Four storms significantly impacted the US, Elena, Gloria, Juan, and Kate.

Elena - is a lovely name, but this storm is remembered for its erratic track. It's pretty telling that the max rainfall, on Florida's Big Bend, occurred in an area nowhere close to the storm's landfall point. The storm caused a bunch of damage to Florida's oyster crop. It managed to cause a negative storm surge when it made landfall, probably due to the angle and winds.

Gloria - an important Northeast system, but one that doesn't get respect when compared with the 1938 storm, the 1950s storms, Donna, and even Bob in 1991. Why? For one, it didn't have much of a surge, and it caused surprisingly little rain in New England - although it dumped quite a bit through the Mid Atlantic. And, it was probably hyped up as being the second coming of the 1938 hurricane. It wasn't. Still, it caused a fair amount of damage, and its name was retired.

Juan - was costlier than Elena and Gloria despite being weaker than both. Why? Because it impersonated a pretzel off Louisiana's coast. When a storm does that, it will inevitably cause heavy rains - which in Juan's case covered a large area - a large, crop-productive area. The name was not retired, strangely. It probably should have been retired. No matter - another Juan, in 2003, was damaging enough for the name to be retired.

Kate - Became a major hurricane on November 20, the latest date on record. Made landfall as a Cat-2 in the Florida panhandle, which was effected badly by Elena earlier. However, Kate was not tremendously damaging. Since it was so late, it set several other records: strongest US November landfall, westernmost November landfall, northernmost November landfall, latest US hurricane landfall.

1986

So here's the thing about the boring seasons. I feel compelled to write something about the most interesting storm in every season. Some seasons, like 1985 above, have some very interesting storms indeed. And I left a couple out! No storms in 1986 come close to the 1985 storms. So what was the most interesting storm in 1986? Probably Charley, which managed to affect two continents: North America (NC coast) and Europe (Great Britain, Ireland). There wasn't much damage in the US, except for a bit of localized flooding on the coast. In Ireland there was pretty extensive flooding and it was unusually windy. I'd say Charley was worse in Ireland than in North Carolina.

1987

There have been a few notable storms named Emily, and the first was in this year. The storm badly affected some of the Lesser Antilles, the Dominican Republic (but not Haiti, oddly) and Bermuda. I guess I don't mention storms that badly affect Bermuda too often, since it's so small and far away from everywhere else. But Bermuda's seen some pretty bad storms, and Emily was apparently one of the worst for the island. Arlene has a splendid track.

1988

Two notable storms, and they were very serious storms indeed: Gilbert and Joan.

Gilbert is mostly remembered as the second strongest (when I was your age, strongest) Atlantic hurricane, by which I mean it had the second lowest central pressure, 888 millibars. Gilbert fucked up Jamaica pretty good. When it hit the Yucatan, it defoliated the jungle where it hit - and it hit as a Cat-5. It then caused major flooding in NE Mexico. The remnants later caused heavy rain in Western Texas and Oklahoma. Gilbert was my favorite hurricane for a while because of its strength. A picture of it was my computer wallpaper back in intermediate and high school.

Joan is remembered as that other strong hurricane that wasn't Gilbert. It's also remembered for a far south track and stubborn westward movement: in October hurricanes generally move north or northeast. The storm fucked up Nicaragua pretty good, helping contribute to an ongoing recession there. Central America is narrowing there, and Joan was still a tropical storm when it reached the Pacific, where it was renamed Miriam.

1989

One storm: Hugo, one of the all time great US storms. It was the costliest storm ever for three years. So where did it fuck up? St. Croix met Hugo's eye and, well, 90% of buildings were damaged or destroyed and the infrastructure was wiped out. Guadeloupe - 100% of the banana crop was wiped out. Montserrat - 90% of buildings were destroyed. (So sez Wiki - not sure if I trust that.) The storm also heavily damaged Puerto Rico. Anyway, after that, it zoomed to Charleston, SC, making landfall as a Cat-4. The storm surge reached 20 feet. It was bad. Not just because Hugo was so intense - it was also so large.

Three storms hit Texas - the Houston area - in 1989. TS Allison is mostly noteworthy for its name. It was a less severe version of the 2001 edition. Hurricane (Cat-1) Chantal - didn't do much damage. Hurricane (Cat-1) Jerry - didn't do much damage. There have been only four hurricanes to hit the upper Texas coast in October in the past 150 years. This is why I consider the end of Texas's hurricane season to be October 1. Allison was the most damaging of the three storms, since it flooded a wide area, East Texas and most of Louisiana.