I am curious to know if two (or more) tropical storms and/or hurricanes have passed over Florida in such close proximity timewise iimpacting virtually the same area? For example, consider the past two storms to hit Florida during this hurricane season. Glued to the Weather Channel, I never heard any mention of how rare an event this was.
Any Weather Dopers out there?
I’ll have to wait until I go back to work Tuesday night for the exact answer, but from what I can recall we had a discussion about a day or two before they both hit land. I’m virtually positive that two hurricanes have never hit Florida on the same day, as it was mentioned that if Bonnie reached hurricane status it would be the first time two storms made landfall in Florida within 24 hours. However two tropical storms may have done so in the past.
Again, once I can pull up the email I’ll know for sure.
Vis
i took a peek at '98 through '03.
it seems that florida gets on average two storms per year. most of them hit different parts of florida and are of various strengths. having more than one hurricane hit the same area with the same intensity appears to be very rare.
at this point frances is due to hit a different area of florida than charley.
following is a list of storms that have hit florida:
'98
earl and mitch
'99
harvey and irene
'00
gordon and helene
'01
barry and gabrielle
'02 and '03 only have one hit each:
edouard in '02 and henry in '03
Looking at the strom tracks for the last ten years, available here, I was able to find three instances in the last ten years where storms affected the same region within a couple weeks of each other:
[ul]
[li]Puerto Rico, 1995: Hurricanes Luis (Sep. 6) and Marilyn (Sep. 16).[/li][li]Louisiana, 1998: Tropical Storm Hermine (Sep. 19) and Hurricane Georges (Sep. 28).[/li][li]North Carolina, 1999: Tropical Storm Dennis (Sep. 5) and Hurricane Floyd (Sep. 16).[/li][/ul]
This list was generated by my staring at the maps, so it’s possible I’ve missed some possibilities. They seem to have maps going back further; maybe if I’m bored enough later on I’ll stare at those some.
“Strom tracks”? I now have a mental image of Senator Thurmond hovering over the Eastern seaboard & causing widespread destruction…
oh good heavens! now someone is going to try and get strom put on the hurricane list! although the chances of an “s” storm name being retired is rather low…
What two tropical cyclones? Only Charlie has affected Fla. so far this year. Francis may or may not. Current forecasts seem to indicate so, but those forecasts have no validity after five days because the syntotical features that far in the future are uncertain. The blocking high in the Atlantic may lift, allowing Francis to go into the open sea. It may encounter shearing from some source in the next few days, tho I don’t know what source that could be. In any event, a shift of only a few degrees to the north and it will hit us in the Carolinas.
It would be virtually impossible for two hurricanes to hit the same area in the same day, unless they come under the influence of the Fujiwara effect, in which two tropical cyclones in close proximity rotate around each other. More likely, the first hurricane would stir up the ocean waters so that the deep and colder waters come to the surface, which would not provide the diabatic energy (latent heat) to sustain the second one.
You forgot about Bonnie.
Bonnie, IIRC, went through the Florida panhandle. Charlie landed south of Tampa. This is close proximity? Well, everything is relative.
Two tropical cyclones did pass over “virtually the same area” recently: Charlie and Gastof. In fact, you can drop the “virtually,” both passing just east of Charleston, SC within a 2-week period. Altho Charlie was a cat 2 when it passed Charleston and Gastof was not offically a hurricane, Gastof did a lot more damage because Charlie whizzed on by on a strong steering current; whereas Gastof just ambled along at 7mph. In addition, Charlie was asymmetrical and most of the convection was in the NE quadrant, out in the sea; whereas, Gastof was very symmetrical.