This week in weather history is full of intense weather records, but nothing could take away from Hurricane Camille.
The Category 5 hurricane struck the Gulf Coast on Aug. 17, 1969, becoming the second most intense hurricane to ever make landfall in the contiguous United States. The storm had a pressure of 900 mb and 172 mph winds falling just short of the Labor Day hurricane in 1935. That storm had a pressure of 892 mb and 184 mph winds.
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Camille is one of four Category 5 hurricanes to make landfall in the continental U.S along with the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, Hurricane Andrew and Hurricane Michael. As a note, in 1928 the San Felipe hurricane made landfall as a Cat 5 in Puerto Rico.
This is not something that happens often. According to the National Hurricane Center, only 36 hurricanes have reached that status. Conditions must be just right to reach that level of intensity and usually it doesn’t last too long.
Let’s take a closer look at what makes a monster storm like Camille.
Warm water is a must for fuel, at least 80 degrees. For a storm to grow in intensity it can’t run into too much wind shear. Winds in the upper levels can break up a storm’s development keeping it in a lower category.
Eyewall replacement is a cycle that plays a big role, too. This happens as an intense storm is moving over water and a second eyewall develops, causing the first one to disintegrate. As a result, the highest winds in the hurricane become a bit weaker. It is quite possible for a hurricane to re-intensify after the cycle, given there’s not a lot of shear and the water is warm enough.
Camille’s exact maximum sustained wind speeds at the time of landfall aren’t known because all the weather instruments in the path were destroyed. Meteorologists went back and reanalyzed the data that was available to determine the winds and pressure at that time.
Yes, the winds matter, but according to the National Hurricane Center the flooding due to storm surge is the greatest threat to life whether it’s a tropical storm or hurricane that makes landfall.
This is the reason why meteorologists want to stress it’s the impacts, not the category of the storm, that really matters. Sure, the category is notable, but history has proven storms of a lesser category have done more damage and even taken more lives.
Camille’s storm surge flooding was 24.6 feet, which swept away homes that had been flattened by the wind. The flooding rains, surge and winds together caused roughly $1.4 billion in damages. The worst was the lives lost. There was a total of 256 deaths with the National Hurricane Center showing 143 of those lives were along the Gulf Coast.
Hurricane Opal in 1995 was a Category 4 storm that downgraded to a Cat 3 storm at landfall and caused just as much devastation as Camille.
Storm surge caused 120 miles of extensive damage from Pensacola Beach to Mexico Beach. The storm tide was 24 feet and was the main factor responsible for $3 billion in damage. A total of 58 lives were lost from Mexico, Guatemala and the United States combined.
Hurricane Katrina is an unforgettable storm for many people no matter where they lived. It quickly became one of the deadliest and costliest U.S. hurricanes on record.
At its peak, Katrina was a Category 5 storm over open water. It later made landfall as a Category 3.
In addition to the estimated 125 mph maximum sustained winds, the storm surge flooding of 25-28 feet along the Mississippi coast and near 10-20 feet along the Louisiana coast quickly became one of the more notable hazards with the storm.
The images of communities with water up to the roof tops where people were seen signaling for help are unforgettable. Katrina took approximately 1,200 lives and brought an estimated $75 billion in catastrophic damages along the coast and in New Orleans.
Other hazards that come with tropical systems include flooding rain and tornadoes. These hazards can happen in any category storm.
To read more about storm surge from News 6 Chief Meteorologist Tom Sorrells, click here.