A distubance moved off the west coast of Africa on September 6th with a notable cyclonic circulation.The system moved west at 15 mph across the tropical Atlantic over the following six days. Slow organization ensued, and ship reports early on the 13th confirmed the presence of a tropical depression roughly 500 miles east of the Lesser Antilles. Slow intensification continued since its upper anticyclone was not well-defined,Eloise became a tropical storm early on the 16th. Soon afterwards, upper level conditions became ideal and Eloise rapidly developed into a hurricane before striking the northeast Dominican Republic late that day.Below is the storm total rainfall graphic for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, using data provided by the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina.

The system moved across northern Hispaniola, across southern Cuba, and then into the northwest Caribbean Sea by the 19th as a weak tropical storm. The circulation slowly reorganized from its encounter with high terrain in the Greater Antilles. As the cyclone moved through the Yucatan channel, Eloise strengthened.It regained hurricane force on the 22nd by the time it reached the central Gulf of Mexico about 300 miles south of New Orleans.

Strengthening continued until landfall midway between Fort Walton Beach and Panama City at 8 a.m.on the 23rd. As it moved inland and encountered cooler and drier air, the storm weakened, becoming a tropical storm around noon and a tropical depression that evening. By the morning of the 24th, the cyclone has become a frontal wave as it moved into the southwest tip of Virginia. A deep cyclone formed to its west, which led to substantial rains ahead of the weak frontal wave formerly associated with Eloise. By the morning of the 27th, this low had moved into Atlantic Canada.

The graphics below show the storm total rainfall for both Eloise and its remnant frontal wave,
using data provided by the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina.

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A well organized cloud pattern moved out of the Sahara Desert and was first identified on satellite imagery north of the Cape Verde Islands on the 23rd of August. The system moved unusually ast; 30-35 mph to the west across the Atlantic. This combined with the dry saharan air mass around the system apparently inhibited the formation of a tropical cyclone until it approached Cuba on the evening of the 27th. On the 28th, reconnaissance aircraft measured 50-60 mph winds in its northern periphery while the system was centered over central Cuba, and tropical storm Elena was born.After moving into the Gulf of Mexico north of Havanna, Elena quickly strengthened into a hurricane on the 29th. A cold front approached from the northwest, which collapsed the steering currents around Elena, and the storm began recurvature. It approached Florida, moving quite close to Tampa Bay and Cedar Key, before high pressure bridged the frontal boundary and steered Elena back towards the west.The cyclone intensified as it accelerated west-northwest, and was a major hurricane by the afternoon of the 1st. On the 2nd, the hurricane made landfall near Biloxi, Mississippi. Bursting convection after moving inland, Elena brought locally heavy rains to Louisiana, Arkansas, and Kentucky over the succeeding four days that the system maintained integrity while it was inland. After the night of the 5th, the remaining cloud system became stretched in a north-south axis and quickly faded while moving eastward across Kentucky.Below are storm total rainfall maps for Elena. Rainfall information was obtained from the National Climatic Data Center. Note the maxima shifts from west of the track to east of the track once Elena moved inland. This could have been due to an upper low that remained quasi-stationary in the Tennessee Valley.

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