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MARCH 2006 ANNUAL SUMMARY 981 ANNUAL SUMMARY Atlantic Hurricane Season of 2004 JAMES L. FRANKLIN,RICHARD J. PASCH,LIXION A. AVILA,JOHN L. BEVEN II, MILES B. LAWRENCE, STACY R. STEWART, AND ERIC S. BLAKE Tropical Prediction Center, National Hurricane Center, NOAA/NWS, Miami, Florida (Manuscript received 16 March 2005, in final form 1 August 2005) ABSTRACT The 2004 Atlantic hurricane season is summarized, and the year’s tropical and subtropical cyclones are described. Fifteen named storms, including six “major” hurricanes, developed in 2004. Overall activity was nearly two and a half times the long-term mean. The season was one of the most devastating on record, resulting in over 3100 deaths basinwide and record property damage in the United States. 1. Introduction named systems became hurricanes, and of these, six The 2004 Atlantic hurricane season was among the became major hurricanes. One additional tropical de- most devastating on record. The year’s storms claimed pression did not reach storm strength. These totals are over 3100 lives, the second largest toll in three decades; considerably above the long-term (1944–2003) means 60 of these occurred in the United States. The United of 10.2 named storms, 6.0 hurricanes, and 2.6 major States suffered a record $45 billion in property damage, hurricanes. August alone saw the formation of eight enduring landfalls from five hurricanes (Charley, tropical storms, a new record for that month. The sea- Frances, Gaston, Ivan, and Jeanne) and the eyewall son also featured intense and long-lived hurricanes. passage of a sixth (Alex) that avoided landfall on the Ivan, a category 5 storm, twice reached a minimum North Carolina Outer Banks by less than 10 miles. In pressure of 910 mb, a value surpassed by only five other addition, Bonnie, Hermine, and Matthew made landfall previous tropical cyclones in the Atlantic basin histori- in the United States as tropical storms. Florida, the cal record. In addition, Ivan was a major hurricane for “Sunshine State,” became known as the Plywood State a total of 10 days, a new record for a single storm since after being battered by Charley, Frances, Ivan, and reliable records began in 1944. In terms of “accumu- Jeanne. The islands of the Caribbean were also hard lated cyclone energy” (ACE; the sum of the squares of hit. Charley struck Cuba as a major hurricane [maxi- the maximum wind speed at 6-h intervals for tropical mum 1-min winds of greater than 96 kt (1 kt ϭ 0.5144 storms and hurricanes), overall activity this year was msϪ1), corresponding to category 3 or higher on the 234% of the long-term (1944–2003) mean. Only two Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale (Saffir 1973; Simpson seasons since 1944 (1950 and 1995) have had higher 1974)]. Ivan was also a major hurricane in the Carib- ACE values. The 2-month period of August– bean, causing extensive destruction on Grenada, Ja- September 2004 registered the highest 2-month ACE maica, and Grand Cayman, and Jeanne produced cata- accumulation on record. strophic flash floods in Haiti that killed thousands and The above-normal levels of activity in 2004 continued left hundreds of thousands homeless. a tendency that began in 1995 for greater numbers of Fifteen named storms developed in 2004, including storms. This appears to be due, in part, to sea surface Nicole, a subtropical storm (Table 1; Fig. 1). Nine of the temperatures (SSTs) over the North Atlantic Ocean that have been considerably warmer during the past 10 yr than during the preceding decade. In fact, 2004 was the second warmest year since 1948, as measured by Corresponding author address: James L. Franklin, Tropical Pre- diction Center, National Hurricane Center, NOAA/NWS, 11691 SSTs between 10° and 20°N in the tropical Atlantic SW 17th Street, Miami, FL 33165-2149. Ocean and Caribbean Sea during the peak months of E-mail: [email protected] the hurricane season. SST anomalies for August and Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/27/21 05:18 AM UTC 982 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW VOLUME 134 TABLE 1. 2004 Atlantic hurricane season statistics. Maximum Minimum sea U.S. damage No. Name Classa Datesb 1-min wind (kt) level pressure (mb) Direct deaths ($ million) 1 Alex H 31 Jul–6 Aug 105 957 1 5 2 Bonnie T 3–13 Aug 55 1001 3 Minorc 3 Charley H 9–14 Aug 125 941 15 15,000 4 Danielle H 13–21 Aug 95 964 5 Earl T 13–15 Aug 45 1009 6 Frances H 25 Aug–8 Sep 125 935 8 8900 7 Gaston H 27 Aug–1 Sep 65 985 8 130 8 Hermine T 27–31 Aug 50 1002 9 Ivan H 2–24 Sep 145 910 92 14,200 10 Jeanne H 13–28 Sep 105 950 3000ϩ 6,900 11 Karl H 16–24 Sep 125 938 12 Lisa H 19 Sep–3 Oct 65 987 13 Matthew T 8–10 Oct 40 997 Minorc 14 Nicole ST 10–11 Oct 45 986 15 Otto T 29 Nov–3 Dec 45 995 a T ϭ tropical storm and ST ϭ subtropical storm, wind speed 34–63 kt (17–32 m sϪ1); H ϭ hurricane, wind speed 64 kt (33 m sϪ1) or higher. b Dates begin at 0000 UTC and include tropical and subtropical depression stages but exclude extratropical stage. c Only minor damage was reported, but the extent of the damage was not quantified. September 2004 are given in Fig. 2. It can be seen that tive estimates of the cyclone’s center location, maxi- nearly the entire tropical Atlantic during the peak of mum sustained (1-min average) surface (10 m) wind, the hurricane season was warmer than normal, the ex- minimum sea level pressure, and maximum extent of ception being cool anomalies in the extreme western 34-, 50-, and 64-kt winds in each of four quadrants Atlantic that largely reflect up-welling from Frances around the center. The life cycle of each cyclone (cor- and Jeanne. Particularly large anomalies were present responding to the dates given in Table 1) is defined to in the eastern Atlantic north of 15°N; these may have include the tropical or subtropical depression stage, but contributed to an unusually favorable thermodynamic does not include remnant low or extratropical stages. environment for tropical waves. Large-scale steering The tracks for the season’s tropical storms and hurri- patterns in 2004, however, differed significantly from canes are shown in Fig. 1 (see http://nhc.noaa.gov/ those occurring over much of the past decade, which pastall.shtml).1 had been characterized by a midlevel trough near the For storms east of 55°W longitude, or those not eastern coast of the United States that took many threatening land, the primary (and often sole) source of storms out to sea before they could make landfall. In information is geostationary and polar-orbiting weather contrast, persistent high pressure over the eastern satellite imagery, interpreted using the Dvorak (1984) United States and the western Atlantic during 2004 technique. For systems posing a threat to land, in situ (Fig. 3) kept this year’s storms on more westerly tracks. observations are also generally available from aircraft The season also featured lower than normal vertical reconnaissance flights conducted by the 53rd Weather wind shear over the Caribbean Sea and western Atlan- Reconnaissance Squadron (“Hurricane Hunters”)of tic (Fig. 4); this combination allowed hurricanes ap- the Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC), and by the proaching the Caribbean and North America to main- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tain much of their intensity. It remains to be seen whether (NOAA) Aircraft Operations Center (AOC). During the synoptic-scale patterns observed during 2004 rep- reconnaissance flights, minimum sea level pressures are resent a 1-yr anomaly or something more ominous. either measured by dropsondes released at the circula- tion center or extrapolated hydrostatically from flight 2. Storm and hurricane summaries level. Surface (or very near surface) winds in the eye- The individual cyclone summaries that follow are based on the National Hurricane Center’s (NHC) post- 1 storm meteorological analyses of a wide variety of (of- Tabulations of the 6-hourly best-track positions and intensities can be found in the NHC Tropical Cyclone reports. These reports ten contradictory) data types described below. These contain storm information omitted here due to limitations of analyses result in the creation of a “best track” data- space, including additional surface observations and a forecast base for each storm, consisting of 6-hourly representa- and warning critique. Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/27/21 05:18 AM UTC MARCH 2006 ANNUAL SUMMARY 983 FIG. 1. Tracks of tropical storms, hurricanes, and subtropical storms in the Atlantic basin in 2004. wall or maximum wind band are often measured di- Mission (TRMM) satellite], which over the past decade rectly using GPS dropwindsondes (Hock and Franklin has provided radar-like depictions of systems’ convec- 1999), but more frequently are estimated from flight- tive structure (Hawkins et al. 2001) and is of great help level winds using empirical relationships derived from a in assessing system location and organization. The Sea- 3-yr sample of GPS dropwindsonde data (Franklin et Winds scatterometer on board the Quick Scatterometer al. 2003). During NOAA reconnaissance missions, sur- (QuikSCAT) satellite (Tsai et al. 2000) provides sur- face winds can be estimated remotely using the face winds over large oceanic swaths. While the Quik- Stepped-Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR) SCAT generally does not have the horizontal resolu- instrument (Uhlhorn and Black 2003). When available, tion to determine a hurricane’s maximum winds, it can satellite and reconnaissance data are supplemented by sometimes be used to estimate the intensity of weaker conventional land-based surface and upper-air observa- systems and to determine the extent of tropical-storm- tions, ship and buoy reports, and weather radars.