This is one hurricane that I have a little personal knowledge of. Back in 2002 my sister moved to Fort Myers Florida. And In 2004 she had a house in Cape Coral. Her house was about 3 miles from the Gulf of Mexico and not far from a canal in fact there are many canals in Cape Coral.
On August 4, 2004, a tropical wave, as they often do, moved out into the eastern Atlantic from the coast of Africa. The wave moved at a pretty good pace to the west and slowly began to organize. On August 10th it was named Tropical Storm Charley. While Charley was approaching Cuba on August 12th, a strengthening high-pressure ridge aloft. changed the track of the tropical storm and it began to move to the west-northwest. Charley became a hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph just south of Kingston, Jamaica. Charley became a Category 2 hurricane as it turned to the northwest toward Cuba. Charlie became a Category 3 when it struck Cuba with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph.
After Cuba Charley moved toward Florida. On August 12th the general consensus among forecasters that the Tampa-St. Petersburg area had a fairly high percentage of a direct hit. On August 13 things began to change and those changes were fast and significant. Radar and satellite photos indicated that rapid intensification was taking place. In the span of just 3 hours, Charley would strengthen from a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph to a strong Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph. The maximum sustained winds then went up to 150 mph. With the rapid intensification, Charley was now being steered by winds father up in the atmosphere that would allow it to curve rapidly to the northeast rather than north or north-northeast. It was now clear this is not going to make it all the way up to Tampa. Now a strong Category 4 hurricane, Charley made landfall with a vengeance on Captiva Island, Florida This island is about 5 miles west of my sisters house at that time. around midday it unleashed tremendous fury on the town of Punta Gorda (about 20 miles north of my sisters house) about an hour later. Charley tracked northeastward, toward Orlando. The hurricane hit Orlando as a Category 1 hurricane after midnight with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph. A couple of hours later, Charley passed near Daytona Beach and moved out into the Atlantic.
Charley moved up along the South Atlantic Coast and made landfall near Cape Romain, SC on 14 August 14th as a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph.
It moved offshore and then came ashore again a few hours later near North Myrtle Beach, SC with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph.
Charley then interacted with an upper-level trough and was downgraded to a tropical storm. It moved back into the Atlantic Ocean near Virginia Beach, VA on August 15th and became extratropical.
There were 10 deaths and 20 indirect deaths attributed to the storm. Many residents of southwest Florida were taken by surprise at the intensity and destruction of Charley.
Here are some interesting facts on Charley.
1. The storm went from a tropical depression to a Hurricane is just 4 days
2. After pummeling Southwest Florida, Charley moved inland. While the storm weakened considerably over land, it moved across the peninsula so quickly, it was still a hurricane when the center passed directly over Orlando. Instruments at the Orlando International Airport recorded wind gusts over 100 mph. Orlando’s theme parks, Including Walt Disney World and SeaWorld. Before Charley, Disney had only closed its parks once before, ahead of Hurricane Floyd in 1999. But only weeks after Charley, Disney and other Orlando theme parks would shut down again for Hurricane Jeanne.
3. Charley moved so quickly over Florida that it never had time to weaken to a tropical storm. It was still a Category 1 hurricane when it passed over New Smyrna Beach and back out over the Atlantic Ocean.
4. Communities in inland areas not often struck by hurricane-force winds reported damage to trees, mobile homes and crops. Altamonte Springs recorded winds of 101MPH . Two million customers lost power in Florida, and Charley caused $200 million in damage to citrus crops.
5. When a hurricane causes extreme damage or loss of life, the World Meteorological Organization removes the name from the rotating list of names used for Atlantic storms. Because of Charley’s widespread devastation, the name was retired in 2005
I went to Fort Myers just a few weeks after Charley hit the area. What surprised me the most was that how much the damage was hit and miss. There were areas the were flattened and not far a way there were areas that looked untouched. At my sisters house the house did not suffer a lot of damage but the screen that covered the pool was destroyed and the fence around the yard was knocked down and a lot of shingles were blown off the roof the total insurance claim came in at $40,000 and it took over 2 years to get it all fixed.
Slim
Raining in Ada…thank goodness.
We had .50 of rain a couple days ago.. Only rain we really had in weeks.. Back to watering the lawn ..
The 3 PM temperature at Grand Rapids is 85 with a dew point of 57 so it don’t feel too bad out in the shade. Here at my house I have a temperature of 87 with a higher dew point of 63. I did not get any rain here at my house last night and look to be too far north for any rain today as well.
Slim
Latest NWS update: The forecast now features strong and possibly severe thunderstorms
this afternoon and evening around the I-94 corridor, primarily
affecting the Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, and Jackson areas. Some of
this activity could make a run north towards I-96 but any such
storms would not be as strong. Lightning, large hail and damaging
winds are the main threats.
Yeah I’ve never had any urge to experience a hurricane, sounds terrible. Wouldn’t mind seeing a tornado someday, from a safe distance of course.
You know one of the things that surprised me was the nature of the hit and miss of the damage. Everything is not flattened but there are pockets of severe damage and not far away there was no damage at all. I will add I was down there in person for a tropical storm and the police want to keep everyone off the streets but in Fort Myers for that one the winds were not as bad as we get here during a November storm. I think the highest winds anywhere in SW Florida at that time was 30 MPH… Read more »
BTW I have not yet gotten a response for how the NWS does the daily average temperature but for yesterday the reported mean at Grand Rapids (per the NWS) with a recorded high of 82 and a low of 56 was 69 I took and added the hourly reports from yesterday and came up with a mean average of 70.357 and that would be rounded up to 70.4 so hey they might just add the high and low then divide by 2 I will let you know if I get a response from the NWS of that.
Slim
I’m hoping they respond. Curious to find out which method they use.
We had a pathetic .08 of an inch of rain overnight bringing our total to .77 for the month…..
Can’t imagine having to experience a hurricane – tornadoes are bad enough, but hurricanes just keep battering you until they slowly move out….
Finally got the other webcam to go out of private mode (for now) seems the the security settings have a mind of their own….