Climate Impacts
Regional Climate Summaries: US Highlights - Tornado Activity
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Below-normal hurricane activity dominated the 1994 Atlantic hurricane season (June - November), and the net tropical cyclone activity was only 37% of the average of the last 45 years. Three systems, all tropical storms (Alberto, Beryl, and Gordon), affected the southeastern United States coast during the season. There were three hurricanes (maximum sustained wind greater than 30 m/s) during the season, although none were of major intensity (winds greater than 49 m/ s), and a total of seven named storms (hurricanes and tropical storms combined). Normally, six hurricanes (two of major intensity) and 10 tropical storms are observed during the season.
A suppression of hurricane activity has been observed during each of the past four years. Only two hurricanes have formed equatorward of 25N, instead of the expected 14 hurricanes during this time. This lack of hurricane activity is linked to a persistent pattern of above-normal pressure throughout the tropical and subtropical Atlantic (Fig. 2.2), to prolonged warm episode conditions in the tropical Pacific (see section 2), and to enhanced upper-level westerlies over the Caribbean basin throughout the period (W. Gray, personal communication).
Tracks of the seven named storms during 1994 (Fig. 4.33) are color-coded to delineate the periods when each storm was a hurricane, tropical storm and tropical depression. Brief characteristics of these storms, numbered as shown in Fig. 4.33, are:
1. Tropical Storm Alberto (30 June- 7 July): Formed west of Cuba and made landfall in the Florida Panhandle. Alberto stalled over west-central Georgia and was notorious for its tremendous flooding in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama.
2. Tropical Storm Beryl (14-19 August): Formed in the northern Gulf of Mexico and also made landfall in the Florida Panhandle. Beryl caused considerably less flooding than Alberto, although tornadoes caused significant damage in South Carolina and Virginia.
3. Hurricane Chris (16-23 August): First hurricane of the season (weak) formed in the low-latitudes of the central Atlantic. The fringes of Chris caused heavy rains in Bermuda.
4. Tropical Storm Debby (9-11 September): Formed from an African wave near the central Antilles. Debby dissipated as it moved westward into the eastern Caribbean. The storm caused fatalities and extensive damage in St. Lucia and Martinique.
5. Tropical Storm Ernesto (21-26 September): Formed in the eastern Atlantic. It moved northward in response to an upper-level trough and dissipated west of the Cape Verde Islands.
6. Hurricane Florence (4-9 November): Formed in the central Atlantic and was the first November hurricane since 1986. Florence reached category 2 intensity and was the season's most intense hurricane. No major land masses were affected by the hurricane.
7. Gordon (10-20 November): First named storm in the Caribbean and second hurricane during November. Gordon followed an erratic path over Nicaragua, the western Caribbean Sea, Jamaica, Cuba, the Bahamas, Florida, and the southwestern North Atlantic. Gordon's torrential rains produced disastrous flooding and mud slides, which were particularly deadly in Haiti. Estimates of the death toll ranged up to 2000 in that country. In Florida, seven deaths were attributed to Gordon, with significant agricultural damage.
Climate Impacts
Regional Climate Summaries: US Highlights - Tornado Activity
Table of Contents
