Hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean is fast approaching, with experts predicting 13 named storms including two major events that could cause significant damage.
According to Colorado State University’s hurricane research team, the upcoming season - which traditionally begins on 1 June - will bring a total of five hurricanes, of which a couple will be Category 3 or stronger.
Under the Saffir/Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, the categories are ranked:
- Category 1 – winds speeds of 74-95 miles per hour
- Category 2 – 96-110 mph
- Category 3 (classed as major) – 111-129 mph
- Category 4 (major) – 130-165 mph
- Category 5 (major) – 157 mph or higher
The 2019 outlook “is similar to what’s considered an average season: 12 named storms, six hurricanes and three major hurricanes”, says The Washington Post.
The US National Hurricane Center has been tracking all occurrences of the weather phenomenon since 1851 and recording them on its hurricane database, known as Hurdat.
The deadliest hurricane predating modern meteorological technology occurred in 1780 and resulted in the deaths of an estimated 20,000 people. The violent storm made landfall in Barbados on 10 October before sweeping much of the rest of the eastern Caribbean over the following week. Barbados, Martinique and St. Lucia “were among the locations hardest hit, and there were thousands of casualties on these islands, along with significant property damage”, says History.com.
Here are the deadliest hurricanes that followed that tragedy, in the Hurdat era:
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Hurricane Mitch
Year: 1998
Death toll: at least 11,000
Classified as a Category 5, the greatest number of fatalities (over 7,000) was in Honduras, where severe rainfall led to mudslides and extreme flooding. The country’s then-president estimated that Mitch had set back 50 years of economic development. The storm left up to 1.5 million people homeless - about 20% of the country’s population
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Hurricane Fifi-Orlene
Year: 1974
Death toll: 8,000-10,000
Originating from a tropical wave, Hurricane Fifi caused widespread flash flooding and mudslides in Honduras on 18 September, before fully regenerating into Hurricane Orlene, which eventually dissipated over mountains in Mexico. Although only a Category 2 storm at its peak, owing to the extreme damage caused and high death toll, the name was retired from the list of Atlantic hurricane names and has not been used since
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Hurricane Flora
Year: 1963
Death toll: at least 7,193
The sixth hurricane of the 1963 season, Flora achieved peak intensity over the island of Haiti before turning west and drifting over the island of Cuba for four days, causing intense flooding. Owing to its slow movement, the Category 4 hurricane remains the wettest known tropical cyclone on record for Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic
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Hurricane Galveston
Year: 1900
Death toll: 8,000-12,000
The Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900 remains the deadliest hurricane ever to hit the US. The storm reached the Texas coast just south of resort town Galveston on 8 September, as a Category 4 hurricane with a storm surge of between 8ft and 15ft. The high death toll has been blamed on the failure of officials at Galveston’s Weather Bureau to respond to reports of the impending storm because the city had ‘weathered them all’, according to the Houston Chronicle
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Hurricane Okeechobee
Year: 1928
Death toll: at least 4,075
The Category 5 storm remains the only hurricane to have made landfall on the island of Puerto Rico. Most of the deaths were caused by a lake surge of 6ft to 9ft that inundated areas surrounding Florida’s Lake Okeechobee
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Hurricane Monterrey
Year: 1909
Death toll: 4,000
This Category 3 hurricane proved particularly deadly because it remained relatively close to land throughout its existence. Much of the northern Caribbean experienced moderate to heavy rainfall along with gusty winds during its passage, although only Haiti reported significant resulting damage. But its effects were far more severe in Mexico, where an estimated 4,000 people were killed by record-breaking floods triggered by the hurricane
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