The picture above is Hurricane Alicia, which struck Galveston on this day in 1983 (technically 1 a.m. on the 18th) as a major Cat. 3 hurricane. Billions of dollars of damage and 21 deaths resulted.
Coincidentally, Alicia formed on an August front (sound familiar?). With warm water and light breezes, Alicia muscled up from a tropical storm to 115 mph winds in just a day. Between the wind, a 12-foot storm tide and 22 tornadoes, Alicia would become a small but devastating hurricane for Galveston and Houston. Shards of glass from the downtown buildings fell like rocks, sticking in the hoods of cars. Hereâs a link to our âremembering Aliciaâ story a couple of years ago.
Recommended Videos
Today, Iâve had a lot of viewers asking about two tropical disturbances in the Atlantic -- both with a 50% and 60% chance to develop and heading west.
Models are not terrific this far out as to what these will do, but hereâs what I can tell you: the Caribbean is ripe for a system to develop. Wind shear is expected to calm down there by Thursday.
And the water is not only warm, itâs deep! Hurricanes draw fuel from that deep well of warm water--look at those red regions below:
So, given such conditions and current movement, the American model for Friday shows this placement:
What then?
A Caribbean storm, as we know, always has an excellent chance to move into the Gulf. This weekend, high pressure will be stationed to our northeast from Arkansas to the East Coast and that effectively blocks a storm from heading there. My concern is that it leaves the Texas and Louisiana coastlines vulnerable. Hurricanes always follow the path of least resistance and weâre it. Iâve highlighted our coast in yellow.
So those disturbances are way out there, for now, but this is the time we have to be on guard. When can we relax? Usually, by mid-October, weâre in the clear while the season itself goes until Nov. 30.
And remember this: in 1983 we only had ONE major hurricane the whole season -- Alicia.
Frank