Major October Hurricanes

Hurricane Mitch at peak intensity (10/26/1998)

Although September is the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season, October has seen a number of major hurricanes. Some of the more notorious include Hurricanes Hazel, Mitch and Wilma. October hurricanes tend to concentrate in the Western Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico where the water remains warmer and the winds remain favorable longer in the hurricane season.

Hurricane Hazel was a deadly storm that caused catastrophic damage in the Caribbean before it turned toward the East Coast.  On October 15, 1954, Hazel made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane near the North and South Carolina border.  Moving quickly northward, Hazel’s damaging effects were felt as far north as Eastern Canada.  Washington, D.C. saw its highest wind gust on record of 98 mph observed at National Airport.

Back on October 26, 1998, Hurricane Mitch became the Atlantic Ocean’s first Category 5 hurricane since Andrew in 1992; with sustained winds up to 180 mph. Conditions were ideal with exceptionally warm ocean water, well above the 80 degree Fahrenheit threshold for hurricane development. Since the prevailing wind pattern was weak and didn’t steer the storm away, Hurricane Mitch was left to slowly meander around the Southwest Caribbean Sea. That led to severe flooding in Central America that unfortunately caused widespread devastation and a tragic loss of over 11,000 lives.

During the record setting 2005 season, the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean formed in almost the same spot as Hurricane Mitch. Once again, atmospheric conditions were ideal for rapid intensification of the hurricane with extremely warm ocean water. Hurricane Wilma became a Category 5 hurricane on October 19, 2005 with sustained winds of 185 mph. Winds gusted over 200 mph around the center of both Mitch and Wilma. Wilma’s lowest observed air pressure was 882 millibars. By comparison, Hurricane Mitch’s lowest air pressure was 905 millibars. The lower the air pressure, the stronger the storm is.

On the Saffir-Simpson hurricane intensity scale, a Category 1 hurricane has sustained winds of 74 mph – 95 mph around the center of the storm, while a Category 5 storm has sustained winds of at least 156 mph. Hurricanes become “major”once they reach Category 3 status with sustained winds around the center of the storm of 111 mph.  Due to their damaging and deadly legacies, the names Hazel, Mitch and Wilma have all been retired by the World Meteorological Organization and will never be used again on future storms.