A NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft inspects the eyewall of Hurricane Katrina. Photo courtesy of NOAA.
but first... What’s in a name? GUESSING THE TRAJECTORY
during the annual Atlantic hurricane season isn’t easy, but the meteorological task isn’t anything new – and neither are the names of the storms bantered about on national news from June through November. OF A STORM
For hundreds of years most people only bothered naming cyclones that were particularly destructive, and they often bore a moniker related to their geographic location or a certain time period. That began to change around World War II when United States Navy and Air Force meteorologists started an informal convention of naming hurricanes after their wives or other female love interests. By 1953 both the National Weather Service and the World
Meteorological Organization formally adopted the gendered naming convention as well, and that labeling system stuck until 1979 when male names were added to the lineup. Today, the National Hurricane Center uses six consecutive lists that are repeated every six years – with individual names only being retired if a storm causes excessive damage (think Hurricane Katrina in 2005 or Sandy in 2012). Though it’s only happened twice in the NHC’s history, the Greek alphabet is also used as backup in the event that a prescribed list is exhausted during a single season – as evidenced by the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, which famously reported the most named storms in recorded history.
The thrill of the hunt
researchers haven’t just tracked the formation of tropical cyclones at sea – they’ve flown straight into them. Known more commonly as Hurricane Hunters, the two organizations responsible for these manned flights are the United States Air Force Reserve’s 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron in Biloxi, Mississippi, and pilots based at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Aircraft Operations Center in Florida.
FOR MORE THAN 70 YEARS,
But even as these missions have become impressively sophisticated over the years, the very first manned flight into the eye of a hurricane was actually done on a dare. In July of 1943, Colonel Joseph Duckworth flew a trainer aircraft directly through a hurricane churning off the Texas coast in order to prove that it could be done – an impromptu experiment that paved the way for decades worth of invaluable meteorological data gathering.
Ophelia 2005
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
A few of the notable hurricanes that have impacted the Outer Banks since 1985
Gloria
Emily
1985
1993
Max Wind: 144 mph Landfall: Hatteras Category 2 at landfall with a 6–8 ft storm surge and 104 mph winds
Max Wind: 115 mph Never made landfall Reached category 3 off of coast, estimated $12 million in damages
Kate 1985
Max Wind: 123 mph Landfall: Florida Tropical storm when arrived in NC with 52 mph winds
Bob 1991
Max Wind: 115 mph Landfall: Rhode Island Reached category 3 off of NC coast
Bonnie 1998
Max Wind: 115 mph Landfall: Cape Fear Category 3 at landfall 6-8 ft storm surge
Bertha
Earl
1996
1998
Max Wind: 115 mph Landfall: Topsail Beach Category 2 at landfall with 104 mph winds and a 5-ft storm surge
Max Wind: 98 mph Landfall: Florida Tropical storm when reached NC
Fran 1996
Max wind: 121 mph Landfall: Cape Fear Category 3 at landfall with 115 mph winds and an 8-12 ft storm surge
Dennis 1999
Max Wind: 104 mph Landfall: Dare County Tropical storm at landfall 69 mph winds, estimated $10 million in damages
Floyd 1999
Max Wind: 155 mph Landfall: Topsail Island Category 2 at landfall with 109 mph winds
Isabel 2003
Max Wind: 160 mph Landfall: Drum Inlet Category 2 at landfall, 6–10 ft storm surge, created breech in island between Frisco and Hatteras Village, estimated $400 million in damages
Alex 2004
Max Wind: 120 mph Western portion of the category 2 eyewall passed over the Outer Banks Caused flooding damage to cars and homes, estimated $2.4 million in damages
Max Wind: 85 mph Landfall: Nova Scotia Passed NC coast as a tropical storm
Earl 2010
Max Wind: 145 mph Landfall: Nova Scotia Passed 100 miles off of the NC coast, estimated $500,000 in damages
Irene 2011
Max Wind: 120 mph Landfall: Just south of the Outer Banks Significant flooding, estimated $54 million in damages
Sandy 2012
Max Wind: 70 mph Landfall: Cuba & New Jersey Significant road damage to NC 12, estimated $13 million in damages
Florence
Arthur
2018
2014
Max Wind: 101 mph Landfall: between Cape Lookout and Beaufort Category 2 at landfall
Hermine 2016
Max Wind: 73 mph Landfall: Florida Category 1 with tropical sustained winds, estimated $5.4 million in damages
Matthew
Max Wind: 150 mph Landfall: Wrightsville Beach Category 1 at landfall, estimated $17+ billion in statewide damages
Michael 2018
Max Wind: 160 mph Landfall: Florida Tropical storm that moved over inland NC
Dorian 2019
Max Wind: 94 mph Landfall: South Carolina Category 1 at Outer Banks, estimated $1.5 billion in statewide damages
Max Wind: 185 mph Landfall: Hatteras Category 1 at landfall with 101 mph winds, 4-7 feet of storm surge, $14.8 million in damages
Maria
Isaias
2017
2020
Max Wind: 75 mph Landfall: Puerto Rico Category 1 as it passed offshore NC
Max Wind: 85 mph Landfall: Ocean Isle Beach Category 1 at landfall
2016
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