The eighth tropical depression of the Eastern Pacific Ocean hurricane season formed during the early morning hours of August 20, and the GOES-11 satellite captured infrared images of its birth.

Tropical Depression 8E (TD8E) this morning. TD8 poses no threat to land, and is forecast to keep moving away from land over the weekend.

At 8:30 a.m. EDT, TD8E had maximum sustained winds near 35 mph and was moving northwest at 7 mph. It is expected to turn to the west-northwest tonight and Saturday. It is located about 230 miles west of Manzanillo, Mexico, near 18.7 North and 107.8 West. TD8 has a minimum central pressure of 1004 millibars. TD8 could strengthen into a tropical storm for a brief time before it runs into cooler waters (cooler than 27 degrees Celsius or 80 degrees Fahrenheit) this weekend. If TD8E becomes a tropical storm, it will get the name “Frank.”

The following list includes all the retired Atlantic hurricanes total damages done in 2005 and now :

Hurricane Hortense made landfall on the southwest corner of the island of Puerto Rico on september 10, 1996 at around 0530 utc. Hurricane Hortense drenched eastern Puerto Rico with up to 23 inches of rain as it battered the south coast of the island from ponce to cabo rojo with category one hurricane force winds. This paper will present a chronology of events based on surface observations, WSR-88D and satellite observations of Hurricane Hortense as it moved slowly through the northeastern caribbean causing a 100-year flood in Puerto Rico. Several photographs taken for the official damage survey are presented to illustrate the devastation wrought by the effects of the flood.

Composite Reflectivity Image from the Puerto Rico WSR-88D located at Cayey, 2.2 NM pixel and 248 NM range resolution, on 8 Sep 96 at 1941 UTC.

The intensification of Hurricane Hortense is apparent when comparing figure 3 to figure 2. an increase in the core reflectivity (note: largest reflectivity signature seen SE of Puerto Rico) from 30 dbz (ref. fig. 2) to 45 dbz (ref. fig. 3) has occurred, as well as the formation of what appears to be an eye wall (note: arc shape to core reflectivity) on the north side of the center of circulation. a little over 24 hours later at 2246 UTC 9 sep 96 NWSFO San Juan made its first hurricane eye fix based on observations made by the WSR-88D. Figure 4 shows Hurricane Hortense just after landfall in Puerto Rico with the eye of the hurricane over the municipality of Guanica.

<<Retired Hurricane

The initial depression formed offshore the coast of southern Cuba on September 28. The cyclone moved west and west-northwest, strengthening into a tropical storm soon after entering the Gulf of Mexico, and a hurricane during the night of the 29th. On October 1st, the hurricane slowly turned north and weakened as it interacted with a nearby frontal zone and cooler waters across the northern Gulf of Mexico. Hilda made landfall on St. Mary parish on the 3rd as a category 3 hurricane. Turning eastward after landfall,the cyclone continued weakening and became an extratropical cyclone on the 4th which ultimately moved eastward into the subtropical Atlantic. Below is the track of this cyclone provided by the National Hurricane Center. The graphics below show the storm total rainfall for Hilda. The maximum across the Lower Mississippi Valley fell just to the left of its track. The precipitation through the East fell along a frontal boundary draping over the northeast side of Hilda.

<<Retired Hurricane

The initial disturbance which led to this cyclone’s development moved off the coast of Africa on October 5th.The system moved westward without note until the 9th when the convective system began to detach from the Intertropical Convergence Zone. By the afternoon of the 10th, the system became a tropical depression, the 17th of the season. Late that night the system became a tropical storm named Joan. Moving westward, the cyclone began to weaken as it approached the Windward Islands. The cyclone moved across Grenada, and slowly developed as it grazed the coast of South America, the first to track so far south since 1971. The cyclone moved across Curacao, the Paraguana peninsula of Venezuela, and the Guajira peninsula of Columbia. After
clearing the Columbian peninsula, Joan strengthened into a hurricane. The cyclone transcribed a loop about 130 miles north of Panama City, Panama on the 20th. Tropical Depression #18 may have helped contribute to this motion.

Strengthening resumed after the loop, and Joan became a category 4 hurricane to the east of Bluefields,Nicaragua. Moving acorss Nicaragua on the 22nd and early on the 23rd, the cyclone remained well-organized and at tropical storm strength as it emerged into the eastern Pacific ocean. The system was named Miriam upon entering the Pacific, and moved just offshore El Salvador and southern Guatemala before upper level shear weakened the tropical storm with the system dissipating as a tropical cyclone about 300 miles south of Acapulco on the 28th. Below is the track of this cyclone, provided by the National Hurricane Center.

The graphics below show the storm total rainfall for Joan/Miriam. Note the maxima over the Yucatan Peninsula and extreme southeast Mexico, which occurred under inflow bands to the northeast of the cyclone. Rainfall data was provided by the Comision Nacional del Agua, the parent agency of Mexico’s National Weather Service.

<<Retired Hurricane