Quick Summary of the 2004 Atlantic Hurricane Season

16 Tropical Depressions

15 Tropical Storms

9 Hurricanes . . . Alex, Charley, Danielle, Frances, Gaston, Ivan, Jeanne, Karl, Lisa

6 Intense Hurricanes . . . Alex, Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne, Karl

Canadian Hurricane Centre

The CHC issued 107 bulletins on eight different tropical systems:

Alex (26)	Bonnie (5)	Charley (18)	Frances (6)	Gaston (20)	Hermine (7)

Jeanne (18)	Nicole (7)

Averages

1951-2000	1995-2004

Tropical Storms	9.7	13.6

Hurricanes	5.7	7.7

Intense Hurricanes	2.3	3.9

10 Interesting Facts or Anomalies about the 2004 Atlantic Hurricane Season

On March 26, 2004, Cyclone Catarina (named after the Brazilian town nearest the point of landfall) was the first South Atlantic hurricane observed since the advent of satellite imagery in 1960. This is not included in the above statistics.

August 2004 saw the formation of more tropical storms (8), more hurricanes (5 – tied with 1995), and more intense hurricanes (3) than any other August since 1950.

2004 was the first time since 1950 that there were 3 intense hurricanes before September and 6 intense hurricanes before October.

Alex was the strongest hurricane to date north of 38°N.

Ivan was the southernmost category 3 hurricane to date.

Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne were the biggest (spatially) hurricanes ever recorded.

Ivan set a world record for the longest continuous duration of category 4+ winds (211 km/h) at 8.25 days.

Four of the US landfalling hurricanes were in the state of Florida, with early estimates (Nov.1) of insured losses between 20-25 billion USD. This is the first time in well over 100 years that a single US state experienced 4 landfalling tropical cyclones in a single year (Texas had 2 hurricanes and 2 tropical storms in 1886).

Ivan caused considerable consternation when the storm essentially 'split' and upper tropospheric moisture and circulation merged with a mid-latitude system creating a dangerous (killer) storm for Atlantic Canada while the low-level circulation detached from Ivan and withdrew to the Gulf of Mexico where it regenerated into another tropical storm. The Canadian Ivan claimed at least one life. The latter development was sufficiently unusual that the US National Hurricane Center forecasters were uncertain as to the naming protocol; they eventually decided to rename the new system Ivan.

As of Nov.1, the Insurance Bureau of Canada reported that the intense rainfall-flooding in southeastern Ontario (especially Ottawa and Kingston) from the remnants of Hurricane Frances had amassed claims in excess of $45 million.

Quick Summary of the 2004 Atlantic Hurricane Season

peter j. bowyer

2004-12-14T07:43:00