Facts Worth Knowing About Tropical Storms
By Erica Grow on August 26, 2012, 11:22pm
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Here we are at the end of August, in the week preceding Labor Day weekend, and we have to deal with a tropical storm possibly affecting our holiday weekend plans. Did you know that we are entering the tropical season's peak right now? That's right; more tropical cyclones and hurricanes occur on Labor Day than the 4th of July, and the actual peak of the season happens on September 10th. Here are some other interesting facts from the Atlantic Basin:
There are more storms beginning with the letters "I" and "C" that have been retired than any other letter. Since 1954, when the naming convention became official, 9 "I" and "C" named storms have been retired. Of course, 2011's Irene is one of these retired names.
In the entire 68-year history of named tropical storms, only one name- Allison- was retired without reaching hurricane status. Despite the lack of wind, experts decided to retire Allison because of the devastating floods that it caused, especially in the Houston metro area, in 2001.
We all remember the record-breaking year of 2005 for several reasons- It was the year when we literally ran out of names for tropical storms, and had to use Greek letters; it was the year with the latest hurricane formation of any season; and of course, it was the year of Katrina. 2005 will be remembered for generations to come, because it was the year with the most storm names retired; in addition to Katrina, the names Dennis, Rita, Stan and Wilma have also been removed from the rolls.
In most years, the first hurricane of the season forms in June, but one of the most notorious hurricanes in American history, Andrew, was the first tropical storm of 1992. Andrew did not become a Tropical Storm until August 16th, making it one of the latest "first storms" of a single season, and one of only three Category 5 hurricanes to make landfall in the United States.
Even though Irene was merely a strong tropical storm when she made landfall last year, the damage along the shoreline was catastrophic in some locations. This is because the storm surge with the storm was much higher than that of most tropical storms, and was instead more like the storm surge usually seen in a Category 2 hurricane.
With Irene barely in our rear-view mirror, the last thing Connecticut wants is another tropical storm landfall... and it's not likely to happen soon. The "return period" for the Connecticut shoreline, or the time between hurricane landfalls in a given area, is nearly 20 years.
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