Hurricane Claudette (2003)

Hurricane Claudette

Category 1 hurricane (SSHWS/NWS)
Hurricane Claudette shortly after landfall in Texas on July 15
Formed	July 8, 2003
Dissipated	July 17, 2003
Highest winds	1-minute sustained: 90 mph (150 km/h)
Lowest pressure	979 mbar (hPa); 28.91 inHg
Fatalities	1 direct, 2 indirect
Damage	$181 million (2003 USD)
Areas affected	Windward Islands, Jamaica, Yucatán Peninsula, Texas, northern Mexico
Part of the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season

Hurricane Claudette was the third tropical storm and first hurricane of the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season. A fairly long-lived July Atlantic hurricane, Claudette began as a tropical wave in the eastern Caribbean. It moved quickly westward, brushing past the Yucatán Peninsula before moving northwestward through the Gulf of Mexico. Claudette remained a tropical storm until just before making landfall in Port O'Connor, Texas, when it quickly strengthened to a strong Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. Forecasting of its path and intensity was uncertain throughout its lifetime, resulting in widespread and often unnecessary preparations along its path.

Claudette was the first hurricane to make landfall in July in the United States since Hurricane Danny in the 1997 season. The hurricane caused one death and moderate damage in Texas, mostly from strong winds, as well as extensive beach erosion. Because of the damage, President George W. Bush declared portions of South Texas a Federal Disaster Area, allowing the affected citizens to apply for aid. Claudette also caused significant rainfall and minor damage in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo as a tropical storm, as well as minor damage on Saint Lucia before developing into a tropical cyclone.

A tropical wave moved off the coast of Africa on July 1. It steadily organized as it moved westward, and resembled a tropical depression by July 7. However, surface reports and reconnaissance aircraft indicated the system did not have tropical characteristics, and remained simply a low-pressure system. The wave produced tropical storm-force winds as it moved through the Lesser Antilles on July 8, but did not acquire tropical characteristics until it reached the eastern Caribbean. Because it had tropical storm-force winds, the system was upgraded immediately to Tropical Storm Claudette after it developed a low-level circulation later on July 8.