Weird Hurricane Tracks

Alabama Hurricanes Do you remember an odd hurricane or tropical storm track? With Fay's fickle forecast local Meteorologists remember a few other strange storms.

by Jene' Young

Published: Wed, August 20, 2008 - 4:41 pm CST Last Updated: Wed, August 20, 2008 - 4:44 pm CST

If you live on the Gulf Coast long enough, you're bound to see some unusual storm tracks.
It's no different for meteorologists -- but there’s always a track that stands out more than others.
Gary Beeler with the National Weather Service says every year is weird!

Jeff Medlin, the Science Officer at the National Weather Service says one storm that impacted the Gulf Coast stands out to him.
"I would have to say Hurricane Danny in 1997. After making landfall in the early morning hours around 4 am or so, it was suppose to be in Montgomery that afternoon. Four days later it was still in southwest Alabama area dumping 43 inches of rain."

Ryan Wade, a Meteorology Instructor at the University of South Alabama remembers Betsy. "Betsy actually did two loops in the Atlantic before moving across southern Florida."

Many along the Gulf Coast remember Hurricane Elena and Hurricane Juan, both forming in 1985.
Kirk Caceras with the National Weather Service says he found Juan to be unique.
"It was just constant rain for several days, and when I was younger, they cancelled Halloween on us. The storm also hit the northern Gulf Coast three times."

Most of us along the Gulf Coast will not forget Ivan’s first landfall. But after the storm weakened over land, the remnants moved over the water again. The remnants eventually crossed the Florida Peninsula, and Tropical Depression Ivan moved inland along the Northern Texas Coast.

So what can cause a storm to change direction? Often times it depends on the winds surrounding the storm, as well as the storms strength.
Dr. Keith Blackwell from the University of South Alabama says, "In many cases, it's almost as if you have to forecast the intensity of the storm correctly in order to then forecast the track correctly. But then the worst thing we do in hurricane prediction is forecast intensity."

When storms are unorganized they are harder to forecast.
"These are what we call nightmare storms simply from a forecasting perspective because they are so fickle with their steering levels."

Fickle Fay will be remembered as a tough storm to forecast.
But while we keep up with the forecast for you, you can check out past storm tracks in the hurricane section on this website.

Ida: Storm Track • Public Advisory • Forecast Advisory • Discussion • Track Archive

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BamaBob Says:

Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 5:20 pm

I’ll never forget all the rain from Danny. It went on for days and the streets looked like rivers even in the high areas. Didn’t realize it dropped 43” though. Didn’t it also do some strange stuff to the bay too? From the eastern side it looked like you could have walked half way across the bay and on the eastern side bluffs were sluffing off from high water and rain.