Tropical Cyclone-Related Anniversaries [Five-year Intervals Only]

[SconnieCane]

This thread could use a revival...

On this day five years ago, a tropical wave emerged into the Bay of Campeche and quickly organized into a tropical cyclone. Even before it attained maximum sustained winds of 35kts, the system already had a name: Harvey. This was because it had previously been a tropical storm over the Caribbean, but had opened up into a trough in the face of hostile shear. However, the NHC had continued to monitor the remnant mid-level circulation for redevelopment, and some model runs were beginning to diverge from the earlier consensus of a landfall in northern Mexico, and showing alarming rainfall totals over parts of Texas...

[MarioProtVI]

Ten years ago tonight or tomorrow (depending on where you live around the world) on November 6-7, 2013, the Philippines experienced the worst storm they’ve encountered since the 1990s: Super Typhoon Haiyan at a peak intensity of ~170 kt - a very high end Category 5. Remarkably this system essentially made up for the abysmal season the Northern Hemisphere was having. That energy had to go somewhere, but at a catastrophic cost, with Haiyan killing at least 6000 people with thousands more missing although at this point they’re basically considered dead as well (the death toll is likely to never be known, but probably is around Mitch-numbers or higher). Tacloban City was essentially wiped off the map as the storm hit there at peak intensity.

[FireRat]

Ten years ago tonight or tomorrow (depending on where you live around the world) on November 6-7, 2013, the Philippines experienced the worst storm they’ve encountered since the 1990s: Super Typhoon Haiyan at a peak intensity of ~170 kt - a very high end Category 5. Remarkably this system essentially made up for the abysmal season the Northern Hemisphere was having. That energy had to go somewhere, but at a catastrophic cost, with Haiyan killing at least 6000 people with thousands more missing although at this point they’re basically considered dead as well (the death toll is likely to never be known, but probably is around Mitch-numbers or higher). Tacloban City was essentially wiped off the map as the storm hit there at peak intensity.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Typhoon_Haiyan_2013_landfall_loop.gif

This was The Big One. I still remember watching that monster roll towards Tacloban the afternoon of Nov 7 here in the US. The landfall was during the morning of 11/08/2013 in Tacloban local time. Most extreme thing I've ever witnessed tracking the tropics. If there was such a thing as Cat 6, Haiyan would be it.

[CrazyC83]

Ten years ago tonight or tomorrow (depending on where you live around the world) on November 6-7, 2013, the Philippines experienced the worst storm they’ve encountered since the 1990s: Super Typhoon Haiyan at a peak intensity of ~170 kt - a very high end Category 5. Remarkably this system essentially made up for the abysmal season the Northern Hemisphere was having. That energy had to go somewhere, but at a catastrophic cost, with Haiyan killing at least 6000 people with thousands more missing although at this point they’re basically considered dead as well (the death toll is likely to never be known, but probably is around Mitch-numbers or higher). Tacloban City was essentially wiped off the map as the storm hit there at peak intensity.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Typhoon_Haiyan_2013_landfall_loop.gif

This was The Big One. I still remember watching that monster roll towards Tacloban the afternoon of Nov 7 here in the US. The landfall was during the morning of 11/08/2013 in Tacloban local time. Most extreme thing I've ever witnessed tracking the tropics. If there was such a thing as Cat 6, Haiyan would be it.

I don't think any of the assessed 170-kt storms since then in the WPAC have reached Haiyan levels. If only we had Recon to monitor that storm, since then we would know the true intensity. (My estimate of the peak intensity was 185 kt, at 1800Z November 7)

[ncforecaster89]

Ten years ago tonight or tomorrow (depending on where you live around the world) on November 6-7, 2013, the Philippines experienced the worst storm they’ve encountered since the 1990s: Super Typhoon Haiyan at a peak intensity of ~170 kt - a very high end Category 5. Remarkably this system essentially made up for the abysmal season the Northern Hemisphere was having. That energy had to go somewhere, but at a catastrophic cost, with Haiyan killing at least 6000 people with thousands more missing although at this point they’re basically considered dead as well (the death toll is likely to never be known, but probably is around Mitch-numbers or higher). Tacloban City was essentially wiped off the map as the storm hit there at peak intensity.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Typhoon_Haiyan_2013_landfall_loop.gif

Tacloban Ciy definitely experienced one of the most devastating storm surge events in recorded history along with extreme winds.

Of minor importance, the city just missed Cat 5 winds due to it being just inside the outermost portion of the N eyewall as Typhoon Haiyan moved through. The Cat 5 MSW’s were located closer to Palo…which encountered the innermost portion of the powerful eyewall. This is an important distinction in so much as helping one to understand that Cat 5 wind speeds aren’t found everywhere within a Cat 5 TC, but only in a very small area within the innermost portion of the eyewall. The gradient is even more pronounced in the most extreme TC’s.

Consequently, the peak winds seen in the videos taken from both Tacloban City and Palo exhibit the aforementioned difference in the wind strength between the two respective locations.

Typhoon Haiyan was actually at its peak intensity when it struck Samar Island near Guiuan, but weakened a little on approach to its landfall near Palo. Not that it mattered much, unfortunately. Hard to imagine it being even more destructive and deadly!

https://youtu.be/4dCt89wuyB8?si=v3vs2BmFKz3T0S6Y

The video linked above may be the most intense winds ever captured on video; possibly 150 kt? One of very few showing genuine Cat 5 wind speeds. The only others I can think of were hurricane Irma on St. Maarten, Michael on Mexico Beacb, and Dorian at Marsh Harbour. In all cases, the MSW caught on video was in the 140-145 kt range. That said, it’s virtually impossible to differentiate small differences at these extreme wind speeds via video documentation.

[Teban54]

 https://x.com/CollinGrossWx/status/1830259526135845231

[Audrey2Katrina]

Sept 2, Ivan the Terrible formed, and became a real oddity making landfalls THREE times on the United States.

[Hurricane2000]

20 years ago today, an insanely destructive storm named Katrina was peaking in the Gulf.

[storm_in_a_teacup]

Sept 2, Ivan the Terrible formed, and became a real oddity making landfalls THREE times on the United States.

Yeah I remember being weirded out by that strange loop it made

Also I wrote it a letter asking if it would be my boyfriend (I was a strange kid)

EDIT: oops didn't notice the timestamp

[Category5Kaiju]

You know the hurricane is a legendary one when the name itself becomes synonymous with death, chaos, and destruction. The average person might not think much if you mention something like "Allen," "Andrew," "Mitch," or "Maria" to them. However, if you mention "Katrina"....they'll know what you're talking about.

[cycloneye]

Great post at X from Josh about Katrina. For those who can't see the post, here it is.


Josh Morgerman
@iCyclone
Twenty years—wow. Twenty years ago this morning, one of the very worst #hurricanes in American history smashed the Middle Gulf Coast. Twenty years ago, the very spot where I'm sitting to write this post was under water—had become part of the Gulf.

Mighty #KATRINA came roaring ashore on 29 August 2005, first in the SE tip of Louisiana, then at the Mississippi/Louisiana state line. The cyclone's winds had weakened to Category 3 just before landfall, but at the same time, the wind field dramatically expanded, creating a gargantuan killing machine that mauled hundreds of miles of American coastline and changed millions of lives forever.

In New Orleans, catastrophic levee failures put huge, densely populated areas underwater, killing over a thousand residents and leaving much of the city uninhabitable. Outside of the city, Plaquemines Parish (where the center first made landfall) and St. Bernard and St. Tammany Parishes were devastated by a lethal combination of wind and surge.

In Mississippi, which got the hurricane's dreaded right-front quad, the highest storm surge ever observed in the Western Hemisphere roared ashore like a mighty bulldozer, wiping out whole communities from the Louisiana state line to Biloxi and beyond. This surge—which peaked in Waveland, Bay Saint Louis, Pass Christian, and Long Beach—is officially estimated at 28 ft (8.5 m), but many locals swear it was 35 ft (11 m) or even higher. This here is Downtown Bay Saint Louis right after the hurricane. The scale of the destruction in Coastal Mississippi is hard to capture in words, looking something like a nuclear bomb had been dropped. And where the surge couldn't reach, the winds did: damaging gusts penetrated far inland, to Hattiesburg and beyond.

Because of KATRINA's tremendous size, even Alabama—over 70 mi from the landfall point—saw hurricane winds, and a large and destructive storm surge was felt on both sides of Mobile Bay. Dauphin Island and Bayou Le Batre were especially hard hit.

The final toll: almost 1,400 people dead and over $200 billion damage (in 2024 dollars), making KATRINA the deadliest American hurricane since 1928 and by far the costliest natural disaster in American history. This aside, the cataclysm caused significant population shifts across the Southern US, with KATRINA survivors migrating to other major cities like Houston, Baton Rouge, and Atlanta. To this day, the population of New Orleans remains well below what it was before KATRINA.

All along the Mississippi coast, the scars and symbols remain—the concrete slabs where grand old homes once stood, the grassy fields where businesses once thrived, the shrines, the monuments.

Despite this, Coastal Mississippi is absolutely booming today. If ever I've witnessed a phoenix rising from the ashes, it is this place—towns like Bay Saint Louis that have come roaring back even better than before, while still holding onto their unique historical markers. My home, Hurricane House, sits where an old house once stood—until this moment twenty yeas ago.

Today we remember KATRINA.

 https://x.com/iCyclone/status/1961422993873142049

[LarryWx]

The 87 year old father of one of my best friends passed as a result of Katrina. My friend and his wife had moved from N.O. to ATL 30 years earlier. His father and mother were living in a house in N.O. They unfortunately hadn’t evacuated. The water rose so fast! Inside the house, he went under and wasn’t seen by his mother coming back up. There was nothing she could do. They also had a several years old cat, who was nowhere to be seen.

She was devastated, but she then needed to save her own life. His mother, then ~76 years old, amazingly survived by (as I recall my friend saying) getting on a wall on the property attached to the house and standing on it for hours (while I think holding on to the adjacent roof to keep her balance if I’m recalling this correctly) until rescuers in a boat could get to her. Can you imagine a 76 year old being strong enough to do that physically and emotionally and being that determined after what she had just seen happen to her husband of 55 years?!

His mother then moved to Atlanta to live with her son/daughter in law. My devastated friend weeks later had to go to N.O. to identify his father’s body. Can you imagine how terrible an experience that must have been?

That’s not the end of the story. After my friend identified his father’s body and then checked out the totaled house, he starting hearing meows nearby. Lo and behold, it was his parents’ cat, which though malnourished, miraculously survived and was ok!! That cat later came to ATL, got back to full health, and lived another 10+ years!

His mother lived about another 18 years!

Things like this remind me to always be grateful for quiet seasons or at least seasons with few or no landfalls. Boredom is obviously way better than deaths/destruction.