1980-1984

1980

The 1980s were pretty shittacular for hurricanes. 1980 was one of the more active seasons of the decade, but most storms didn't effect land and weren't very strong anyway. The season did have one important storm, Allen, and Allen's pretty interesting indeed. The storm is today mostly known for its extreme strength: the 5th most intense Atlantic hurricane, it reached Cat-5 status three times, it spent more time as a Cat-5 than any other Atlantic hurricane, its top windspeed was 190 mph, tied with Camille for the record. The storm is also known for its strange avoidance of land areas. It passed through the Caribbean and the Gulf, but its first and only landfall occurred in South Texas. Consequently, on its path it didn't actually do that much damage, except in Haiti, where a thunderstorm does damage. In Texas it passed over sparsely populated regions, dumping the usual obscene amounts of rain: 20 inches in Kingsville was the highest total recorded from the storm. The rain is important: the summer of 1980 was one of the most ferocious summers for Texas, although some recent summers (2009) have probably been worse. Hurricane Allen's rain eased the major drought. Anyway, Allen was retired.

1981

This season was quite boring, so I'll talk about the surreality of seeing infamous storm names on boring storms: Katrina was the deadliest storm in 1981, killing two in Cuba. Dennis was the costliest, doing most of its damage in South Florida. The names Emily and Floyd were used for the first time this season, although they didn't do much damage. Things would be different later.

1982

Forget it. There wasn't shit in this season. Most notable storm: Alberto, an early June hurricane which caused massive flooding in Cuba and a bit in South Florida. Alberto also dissipated in the Gulf without making landfall, which is pretty unusual.

1983

Only four storms, but one was Alicia. When I was growing up, I knew that in the named storm era, there were two storms that affected Houston particularly badly, Carla and Alicia. (To that dyad we can now add Ike.) My parents married in 1981 and they lived in Houston at the time, but were on vacation when the storm hit. It took off most of the shingles of the house they lived in though. So that's how I was aware of Alicia as a kid.

Alicia was a short-lived storm, unlike Carla (which formed in the Caribbean) or Ike (which formed far out in the Atlantic). So I'm guessing the hurricane was a bit of a surprise. Wiki sez only 10% of Galvestonians evacuated for the storm, as compared to 60% in Ike and probably more in Rita. Why only 10%? The mayor did not order a mandatory evacuation and by the time residents got concerned, the causeway was flooded. No way off. Anyway, yeah, the storm was damaging. In Houston, I'd say it was mostly a wind event: there was apparently gravel on the tops of skyscrapers (wtf?) so the wind blew it into the buildings, shattering the windows. (Winds in a hurricane are higher up at the tops of skyscrapers than at the surface.) There was presumably flooding, but Ike and Allison were rainier. The storm was Texas's first billion dollar storm. Alicia was retired. It was replaced by Allison.

1984

I don't find this season particularly congenial - there was an adequate number of storms, but they weren't particularly important. I guess Diana is the most noteworthy, but more for what it didn't do. It struck NC as a Cat-2, not a Cat-4 like it came *so* close to doing. Failstorm. It kinda reminds me of Lili in 2002 for that reason - another failstorm. Anyway, yeah, heavy rains on the NC coast. Speaking of Lili, its 1984 incarnation was a December hurricane. It didn't do anything notable, but December hurricanes are definitely rare.