Hurricane Audrey The first named storm , first hurricane and first major hurricane of the 1957 Atlantic hurricane season. Audrey was the only storm to reach Category 4 status in June. A powerful hurricane, Audrey caused catastrophic damage across eastern Texas and western Louisiana. The storm then affected the South Central United States as a powerful extratropical storm. In its wake, Audrey left $1 billion dollars (2005 USD) in damage and 390-550 fatalites. At the time period, the devastation from Hurricane Audrey was the worst for the United States since the Great New England Hurricane of 1938. [1]
Storm history
Tropical storm (39–73 mph, 63–118 km/h)
Category 1 (74–95 mph, 119–153 km/h)
Category 2 (96–110 mph, 154–177 km/h)
Category 3 (111–129 mph, 178–208 km/h)
Category 4 (130–156 mph, 209–251 km/h)
Category 5 (≥157 mph, ≥252 km/h)
Unknown
Extratropical cyclone, remnant low, tropical disturbance, or monsoon depressionA tropical wave moved across the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea where it became a tropical depression on June 25. The depression stalled in the Gulf of Mexico where it showed signs of rapid intensifcation. At 1800 UTC, the tropical depression quickly became Hurricane Audrey as the center of the storm was centered 380 miles southeast of Brownsville, Texas. By June 26, the storm was already at category 2 strength as it moved northeastward at 5 mph. Later , the storm foward speed increased to 15 mph as Audrey continued its north-northeasterly track. [1] Hurricane Audrey then reached its peak intensity of 145 mph (230 km/h) and an estamated pressure of less than 946 millibars before making landfall near the Texas/Louisiana border on June 27. [2] After making landfall, Audrey quickly weakened to a tropical storm as it moved over inland Louisiana. Audrey then tranversed to a powerful extratropical storm as it crossed over Tennessee. The extratropical remnats of Audrey then merged with another low over the Ohio Valley. The extratropical storm reached a low barometric pressure of 974 millibars as it moved across southeastern Canada and was unidenfiable by June 29. [1]
Records
Audrey remains the earliest storm of any Atlantic hurricane season to reach Category 4 intensity in the recorded history of the basin. Audrey attained Category 4 strength on June 27. At the time, Audrey was the strongest storm to form prior to August. It held this record for nearly fifty years before Hurricane Dennis broke it in 2005 (which was itself broken only nine days later by Hurricane Emily). It remains the strongest storm ever to form in June.
Impact
See also
External links
- ^ a b c Monthly Weather Review MWR Report on AudreyURL Accessed:June 21, 2006 Cite error: The named reference "mwr" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Unisys Best Track Data for Hurricane AudreyURL Accessed: June 21, 2006