Igor and Other Amazing Storms

It seemed like Hurricane Igor has been in the news forever. What a bizarre storm. I just looked at his track and he is forecasted to move west over Newfoundland? Crazy. “Hurricane lashes East Canada” is not a headline you often hear.

He is also predicted to finally sputter out on Sept. 25. He formed on Sept. 8. 18 days. Not a record but still very long. Julia and Karl came and went in that time.

Look at his historical track. A huge S-curve through the Atlantic.

He got me to thinking about some of the more bizarre Hurricane tracks from recent years.

Elena- 1985
My favorite of all time is Elena. Click the link and you will see her scaring the bejeesus out of the entire Gulf Coast and then abruptly turning toward the east coast of Florida. Then, an astonishing 180 degree turn back toward the Fla – AL – MS coast. Think of all the fleeing! A triple evacuation.

Wilma – 2005
Wilma’s notoriety has not been given the credit she deserves because of Katrina and Rita that same year but Wilma has the distinction of having the lowest pressure of any recorded storm (882 millibars) and it intensified from a tropical storm to a Cat-5 in one day. I always thought the turn at the bottom of the Gulf was strange as I never saw a storm move east across the whole Gulf like that. Also, she ate another storm. By that I mean she absorbed another system named Tropical Storm Alpha.

Charley – 2004
Charley’s a good example of why depending too much on forecasters might not always be such a good idea. This path shows that he jogged to the northeast in a few hours then intensified. Residents of Punta Gorda, Fl thought they were going to get brushed by a Cat 2 ended up being hit directly by a Cat-4 with no time for evacuations. What a nightmare.

Katrina – 2005
I only include her in the context of this early forecast. If she would have only been over the Gulf for the short amount of time predicted in that forecast, she would have been a much weaker storm with much less damage. Unfortunately, as you can see in this track, she has what amounts to be a “running start” over the warm Gulf waters, spending time getting big and strong after emerging from South Florida to really gear up for the destruction she would later wreak. I remember thinking if she just kept going a little more west before the jog to the north we would be better off.

Zombie Ivan – 2004
We all know Ivan as the one that head-faked New Orleans and hit the FL – AL border. I know it as the one that destroyed the house I grew up in and sort of primed me for the destruction I’d see a year later in my friends’ homes. But he is on this list because he is one of the only ones who came back from the dead. I’ll let the experts explain it, “Ivan’s remnants turned to the southeast then southwest, and gradually re-organized over the warm Gulf Stream waters. After crossing southern Florida on September 21 the system regained tropical characteristics over the Gulf of Mexico, and became a tropical storm on September 23 while 140 miles (220 km) south of Louisiana.” Anyways, he came back. Didn’t do much after that.