8TH ANNIVERSARY OF HURRICANE OPAL

[AussieMark]

On October 4 it was the 8th Anniversary of Hurricane Opal the strongest Hurricane to strike the US during the month of October since Hilda in 1964. (Correct me if i'm wrong)

If anyone has any info to Share on Opal could they post it.

[mobile bay girl]

Wow! I had forgotten it was Oct. 4th when Opal blew ashore. How could I forget that?!

I guess I can share that Opal tore up my sister's house in the Fort Walton Beach, FL area. My parents' house close to Mobile Bay lost power for two days! That may not seem like much, but we were more than 100 miles west of the landfall zone.

[PTrackerLA]

Opal just about destroyed out relative's condo on Pensacola beach. Everything on the first floor was washed away into the sound across the street. I was down there about a month after and couldn't believe all of the destroyed beach houses, there was even a house almost perfectly intact that was standing upright in the sound at least 200 yards from shore, amazing what the storm surge can do...

[mobile bay girl]

You are right, PT Tracker--- Opal's storm surge was amazing! I wondered if perhaps since she had been a Cat 5 earlier that morning if her storm surge didn't "catch up" (or, rather, slow down) when she weakened just before landfall. I'm not sure what the meteorological dynamics are for that.

There was catastrophic damage in Destin and Fort Walton Beach and all along the coast. I remember seeing all the debris from Navarre Beach homes washed up into the median of Hwy. 98 in Navarre, across the sound from the beach. Also, homes along the waterways (bays and rivers) in Fort Walton had some major flooding problems. I know on my sister's street (in Shalimar on the bay) almost all of the houses had water in the first floor. Her house was up a 15+ ft. bluff and we were sweeping and mopping water out of it for hours! It ruined their hardwood floors. Of course, Erin's wind-driven rain just two months before hadn't helped, either.

[deb_in_nc]

I saw on TV that some homes had up to 3-4 feet of sand on the first floor. I couldn't believe it. They were walking around in one house bent over so as not to hit their heads on the ceiling. Said she washed the dunes away.

Debbie

[Stormsfury]

Hurricane Opal's prelim. report, and mission on Oct. 4th

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/prelim/Opal_prelim.html

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/95mission/Opal1.html

And finally ... Opal's rapid intensification that was originally missed by AVHRR data in 1995. (Source: AOML/HRD)

Hurricane Opal in the Gulf of Mexico, August-September 1995 (left):
This TC intensified from hurricane-1 (74-95 mph winds) to hurricane 4 (131-155 mph winds) while traveling over a number of warm features in the Gulf of Mexico. In particular, this TC suddenly intensified from hurricane-2 (96-110 mph winds) to hurricane-4 in a period of 10 hours when its track went over a very well defined ring with a mean radius of 150 km that had been shed by the Loop Current. Altimeter-derived fields indicate that the increase in TCHP associated with this warm ring was approximately 30 kJ/cm2. The most striking information of the ocean conditions during the life span of this hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico was that this warm ring was not detected using the AVHRR-derived sea surface temperature fields.

Hurricane Mitch in the Caribbean Sea, October 1998 (center):
This cyclone intensified from hurricane 2 to hurricane 5 (winds above 155 mph) when its track traveled over a region of warm surface waters, experiencing an intensification from hurricane 3 (111-130 mph winds) to 5 with an increase in values of TCHP approximately 80 kJ/cm2 under the track of the TC in 22 hours.

Hurricane Bret in the Gulf of Mexico, August 1999 (right):
This hurricane intensified several times in the SW Gulf of Mexico in a period of approximately 36 hours while traveling over two warm features remnants of one warm ring that had been shed by the Loop Current several months earlier. The increase in TCHP under the track of the TC during this period was approximately 80 kJ/cm2.

In these cases an association was observed between the increase in TC intensity and a raise in the value of TCHP under the track of each of the TCs. Preliminary evaluation of the upper ocean thermal conditions during the intensification of 32 of the 36 strongest TCs in the tropical Atlantic from 1993 to 2000 indicates that their intensification can be associated with the passage of their tracks over regions, with increased TCHP of at least 20 kJ/cm2.

Opal, Mitch, and Bret.

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/cyclone/d ... HHPOMB.jpg

[vbhoutex]

You are so right about the incredible storm surge. My parents also lived in Shalimar when Opal came through. Sounds like your sister lived close to my parents MBG. They lived on Ben Hogan Court then. I could tells several stories but the biggest is that their sailboat which was moored at Boggy Bayou in Niceville ended up destroyed by a 35' Cabin Cruiser that came to rest on top of it. The idiot who owned the cruiser decided he was going to ride out the storm in the boat on the bayou!!!! To say the least he lost control of the boat and the 14' storm surge they had in the bayou, which is 15 miles inland on Chocktawhatchee Bay, deposited his sorry arse and his boat on top of my parents boat.

[mobile bay girl]

My sister lived on Shalimar Point back then. I know exactly where Ben Hogan Ct. is. Holiday Isle and right along the Gulf in Destin really took a beating. Some of those homes and condos were completely washed away or, if not washed away, they had that 5 feet of sand inside, like you described. The storm surge cut off Fort Walton from Destin by slicing Hwy. 98 in half at the Eglin Officer's Club! It was incredible!

And... my goof! I knew Opal was a Cat. 4 not Cat. 5. Ooops! Anyway... I wonder about the dynamics of hurricanes. When a storm is a major hurricane and then weakens before landfall, does it take a while for the storm surge to weaken to match the decrease in winds? I mean, it would seem it would take awhile for the wave heights and wave action to "slow down" from a Cat 4 to a Cat 2. Does that sound right? Anyone on here have any idea?

[stormchazer]

We had rented a beach house in Destin for our family reunion. Opal hit two weeks before and we were informed that the beach house now had a sand floor. We ended up renting a home in Wild Dunes in Charleston, SC. I lived there at the time so it did save me a drive.

[therock1811]

I'm well inland and remember walking to the school bus on the 6th... my umbrella turned inside out, and it blew away for about 50-100 ft.