About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Hurricane Opal

Encyclopedia : H : HU : HUR : Hurricane Opal

 

Hurricane Opal was a major hurricane that formed in the Gulf of Mexico in September 1995. Opal was the ninth hurricane to form in the abnormally active 1995 Atlantic hurricane season. It struck the Yucatán Peninsula, then churned in the Gulf as the most powerful category four ever recorded in the Atlantic before making landfall a second time on the panhandle region of Florida as a 115 mph hurricane, devastating the Pensacola area. Opal also caused heavy damage in the Mid Atlantic states before dissipating.

Contents

Storm history

The tropical wave that would become Hurricane Opal emerged from the west coast of Africa on September 11. The wave would stay disorganized, and did not begin strengthening until it neared the Yucatán Peninsula, becoming a tropical depression on September 27 while 70 nautical miles (130 km) south-southeast of Cozumel. The depression slowly moved over the Yucatan for the next several days, eventually emerging over the Bay of Campeche, where it was officially upgraded to Tropical Storm Opal.

After languishing for days and nearly dissipating due to ocean-cooling effect of its own rainfall, it rapidly intensified to a hurricane and began moving north across the Gulf of Mexico. It deepened to a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 130 knots and a central pressure of 916 mbar (the lowest ever recorded in a hurricane that never reached Category 5 intensity), possibly due to crossing the Loop Current.

During this period of rapid strengthening, a small eye formed with a diameter of only about 6 miles . The well defined, inner eye soon collapsed leaving a large ill-defined eye about 60 miles in diameter. The pressure rose steadily over the next few hours to 940 mb as the maximum sustained winds diminished down to 125 mph.http://www.weather.com/encyclopedia/tropical/archive/1995/storms.html Opal weakened still to 115mph before it's final landfall in Santa Rosa Island, Florida on the 4th. Opal brought heavy surge to the area, 8-15 feet in some areas, comparing itself to Hurricane Eloise, which struck the same area at near equal strength in 1975.

Opal remained a hurricane for nearly 12 hours after landfall, its rapid forward speed propelling it the entire length of Alabama before being downgraded to a tropical storm as it crossed into Tennessee. Over the following 12 hours, it was not downgraded to a tropical depression until it reached Ohio, and not declared extratropical until reaching Canada, where it still managed to bring squally conditions.

Impact

 Storm deaths by region
Area Deaths
Guatemala 31
Mexico 19
Florida 1
Alabama 2
Georgia 5
North Carolina 1
Total 59

Mexico and Central America

Tropical Storm Opal emerging into the Gulf.
Enlarge
Tropical Storm Opal emerging into the Gulf.
Damage here was largely attributed to rainfall. Because Opal stalled on the coast of Mexico for several days as a weak tropical storm, flooding was reported across the country. 31 in Guatemala and 19 in Mexico died from flooding.

Florida


About 200 miles of Florida’s coastline felt effects from the very large Opal.http://www.geocities.com/hurricanene/hurricaneopal.htm Opal caused about $3 billion dollars in damage, making it the third costliest hurricane at the time when not 


Damage from Hurricane Opal

Enlarge

Damage from Hurricane Opal





adjusted for inflation. Most of the structural damage occurred near the coastline on the Florida Peninsula, due to intense surge. Amazingly enough, nearly a mile of Highway 98 near Eglin Airforce Base was completely destroyed. The pavement was nearly replaced by mounds of sand left behind after storm surge.http://www.geocities.com/hurricanene/hurricaneopal.htm Opal also spawned at least a category two hurricane that killed a young woman in Florida. Oddly enough, none died as a direct result of storm surge. This is quite unusual, considering the strength and landfall location of Opal. 

Inland states

Numerous downed trees across much of the Southeastern United States left over 2 million without power. Damage was heavy all the way inland to Montgomery, Alabama where winds reached 90 MPH or 145 km/h.  Beginning the evening of October 4, numerous power outages were reported in metro Atlanta, where sustained tropical storm conditions overnight (including gusts to nearly 70 MPH or 110km/h) felled thousands of trees.  Oaks were particularly susceptible, as their root systems were loosened by nearly two days of rain thrown against an approaching cold front by the storm.





Significant flooding and blackouts were caused by the storm as far north as Buffalo, New York.



Retirement


The name Opal was retired in the spring of 1996 and will never again be used in the Atlantic basin.  It was replaced with Olga in the 2001 season.



Trivia

Opal was the first of only 5 storms to be assigned a name beginning with 'O' since hurricane naming began in the Atlantic in 1950. The other 4 are Olga of 2001, Odette of 2003, Otto of 2004 and Ophelia of 2005.



See also


  1. redirect[[Template:Portal]]


References








External links





Tropical cyclones of the 1995 Atlantic hurricane season


|stormname=Allison
|strength=Category 1
|linkname=1995_Atlantic_hurricane_season#Hurricane_Allison
|storminitial=A
}}

|stormname=Barry
|strength=Tropical Storm
|linkname=1995_Atlantic_hurricane_season#Tropical_Storm_Barry
|storminitial=B
}}

|stormname=Chantal
|strength=Tropical Storm
|linkname=1995_Atlantic_hurricane_season#Tropical_Storm_Chantal
|storminitial=C
}}

|stormname=Dean
|strength=Tropical Storm
|linkname=1995_Atlantic_hurricane_season#Tropical_Storm_Dean
|storminitial=D
}}

|stormname=Erin
|strength=Category 2
|linkname=Hurricane_Erin_(1995)
|storminitial=E
}}

|stormname=Felix
|strength=Category 4
|linkname=Hurricane Felix (1995)
|storminitial=F
}}

|stormname=Gabrielle
|strength=Tropical Storm
|linkname=1995_Atlantic_hurricane_season#Tropical_Storm_Gabrielle
|storminitial=G
}}

|stormname=Humberto
|strength=Category 2
|linkname=1995_Atlantic_hurricane_season#Hurricane_Humberto
|storminitial=H
}}

|stormname=Iris
|strength=Category 2
|linkname=1995_Atlantic_hurricane_season#Hurricane_Iris
|storminitial=I
}}

|stormname=Jerry
|strength=Tropical Storm
|linkname=Tropical Storm Jerry (1995)
|storminitial=J
}}

|stormname=Karen
|strength=Tropical Storm
|linkname=1995_Atlantic_hurricane_season#Tropical_Storm_Karen
|storminitial=K
}}

|stormname=Luis
|strength=Category 4
|linkname=Hurricane_Luis
|storminitial=L
}}

|stormname=Marilyn
|strength=Category 3
|linkname=Hurricane_Marilyn
|storminitial=M
}}

|stormname=Noel
|strength=Category 1
|linkname=1995_Atlantic_hurricane_season#Hurricane_Noel
|storminitial=N
}}

|stormname=Opal
|strength=Category 4
|linkname=Hurricane_Opal
|storminitial=O
}}

|stormname=Pablo
|strength=Tropical Storm
|linkname=1995_Atlantic_hurricane_season#Tropical_Storm_Pablo
|storminitial=P
}}

|stormname=Roxanne
|strength=Category 3
|linkname=Hurricane_Roxanne
|storminitial=R
}}

|stormname=Sebastien
|strength=Tropical Storm
|linkname=1995_Atlantic_hurricane_season#Tropical_Storm_Sebastien
|storminitial=S
}}

|stormname=Tanya
|strength=Category 1
|linkname=1995_Atlantic_hurricane_season#Hurricane_Tanya
|storminitial=T
}}

























 




From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.















Search Titles









0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?
















E-mail this article to:



Personal Message: