Hurricane Ginger (1971)

Hurricane Ginger

Category 2 hurricane (SSHWS/NWS)
Image of Hurricane Ginger on September 13
Formed	September 6, 1971
Dissipated	October 5, 1971
(Extratropical after October 3)
Duration	3 weeks and 6 days
Highest winds	1-minute sustained: 110 mph (175 km/h)
Lowest pressure	959 mbar (hPa); 28.32 inHg
Fatalities	1 direct
Damage	$10 million (1971 USD)
Areas affected	The Bahamas, North Carolina
Part of the 1971 Atlantic hurricane season

Hurricane Ginger was the second longest-lasting Atlantic hurricane on record. The eighth tropical cyclone and fifth hurricane of the 1971 Atlantic hurricane season, Ginger spent 27.25 days as a tropical cyclone, lasting from September 6 to October 3. Twenty of those days (September 11 – September 30), Ginger was classified as a hurricane. The storm formed northeast of the Bahamas, and for the first nine days of its duration tracked generally eastward or northeastward while gradually strengthening to peak winds of 110 mph (175 km/h). On September 14, Ginger slowed and turned to a general westward track, passing near Bermuda on September 23. There, the hurricane produced gusty winds and high waves, but no damage.

While over the western Atlantic Ocean, Ginger became the last target of Project Stormfury, which sought to weaken hurricanes by depositing silver iodide into tropical cyclone rainbands. Ginger ultimately struck North Carolina on September 30 as a minimal hurricane, lashing the coastline with gusty winds that caused power outages across the region. Heavy rainfall flooded towns and left severe crop damage, with 3 million bushels of corn and 1 million bushels of soybean lost. Damage in the state was estimated at $10 million (1971 US dollars, $59.1 million 2017 USD). Further north, moderate precipitation and winds spread through the Mid-Atlantic states, although no significant damage was reported outside North Carolina.

Ginger has the highest acculumated cyclone energy for a hurricane below major hurricane strength in the Atlantic basin, at 44.2.

Hurricane Ginger originated in a cold-core upper-level low that persisted for several days in early September in the Western Atlantic Ocean. The upper-level low was located within a large, persistent area of convection from the Gulf of Mexico through the central Atlantic, which resembled the Intertropical Convergence Zone but at a higher latitude. The convective feature was influenced by an anticyclone located over northern South America, which was opposite of the typical flow for September. The anticyclone also led to the formation of Hurricane Fern, Tropical Storm Heidi, and two tropical depressions. By September 5, the low had descended to the surface as its thermal structure warmed, and the next day it developed into a tropical depression about 235 mi (375 km) northeast of the Bahamas.