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Hurricane Mitch developed in the Caribbean Sea in October
1998 and became one of the strongest and deadliest Atlantic hurricanes
ever recorded. Some of the details of the hurricane and its effects
are summarised below.
Most hurricanes which develop in the Atlantic Ocean originate
from small disturbances in the weather over western Africa (known
as tropical waves) which move westwards across the Atlantic Ocean.
A tropical depression forms when the cloud mass associated with
a tropical wave starts to grow and rotate in an anti-clockwise
direction. Mitch followed this pattern - originating as a tropical
wave and eventually forming into a tropical depression when in
the southern Caribbean Sea just north of Colombia.
Here is the life cycle of Mitch:
22 October: Tropical Depression `Thirteen' forms (winds
less than 39 m.p.h.), but by the end of the day is upgraded to
Tropical Storm Mitch (winds greater than 39 m.p.h.) and starts
moving northwards.
24 October: Mitch is upgraded to a hurricane (winds greater
than 74 m.p.h.).
25 October: Hurricane Mitch turns towards the west.
26 October: Winds near the centre of the hurricane peak
at 180 m.p.h.
27 October: Mitch starts to weaken, but turns southwards
towards the northern coast of Honduras.
29 October: Mitch is downgraded to a tropical storm and
makes landfall over Honduras.
31 October: Mitch is downgraded to a tropical depression
whilst moving slowly south-westwards and still producing heavy
rain.
1 November: Mitch dissipates as a depression over Guatemala.
3 November: The remnants of Mitch have moved northwards
and reform as a tropical storm in the southern Gulf of Mexico.
5 November: Mitch makes landfall on the Gulf coast of southern
Florida.
6 November: Mitch is declared `extra-tropical' as it heads
north-eastwards across the Atlantic.
After becoming an `extra-tropical' storm Mitch raced across the
Atlantic and developed into a vigorous depression bringing stormy
conditions to the north and west of the UK.
The observed track from 23 October to 06 November
Hurricane Mitch became the joint fourth strongest Atlantic hurricane
on record. On 26 October 1998 a central pressure of 905 mb was
measured along with wind speeds averaged over one minute of 155
knots (180 m.p.h.). Here are the previous records:
GILBERT (1988) 888 mb
UNNAMED (1935) 892 mb
ALLEN (1980) 899 mb
CAMILLE (1969) 905 mb
It must be noted that these records are for the Atlantic and Caribbean
only. Many more hurricanes and typhoons of this strength have
formed in the Pacific Ocean over the years.
Whilst Mitch was one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record,
the winds abated considerably as the storm moved inland. It was
actually the huge amount of rainfall deposited by such a slow
moving storm which caused most of the damage. Most rainfall recording
instruments would have been destroyed during the storm. However,
some records which survived indicated rainfall totals in Southern
Honduras of 25" in 36 hours and 10" in 6 hours between 29 and
31 October*.
* source: Jon Hellin (Natural Resources Institute) and Corporacion
Hondurena de Desarrollo Forestal.
The human cost of Hurricane Mitch was enormous. It will probably
never be known exactly how many died. As of 19 November 1998*
estimates were as follows.
Honduras: 7000 dead, 8300 missing
Nicaragua: 3000 dead, 2200 missing
Guatemala: 258 dead, 121 missing
El Salvador: 272 dead, 100 missing
* source: ReliefWeb
The economic cost of the hurricane is also huge and will probably
be unquantifiable. However, with the change in landscape, destruction
of homes, towns, villages and crops it is estimated that it could
take decades for the economy to recover in the areas affected.
More information on Hurricane Mitch including satellite images
and humanitarian aid efforts can be found on the following Internet
web sites.
Meteorological Information:-
NOAA
(National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USA)
Goddard
Space Flight Center (National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
USA)
Rainfall Information: see Nature, Vol.399 (27 May 1999),
p.316.
Humanitarian Information:-
ReliefWeb
This fact sheet was compiled by Julian Heming with information
obtained from the National
Hurricane Center, Miami. Further enquiries through the Press
Office, tel. +44 (0)1344 854629.
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