Hurricane Isidore
| Category 3 major hurricane (SSHWS/NWS) | |
Hurricane Isidore at peak intensity just off the coast of Mexico on September 22
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| Formed | September 14, 2002 |
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| Dissipated | September 27, 2002 |
| Highest winds |
1-minute sustained: 125 mph (205 km/h) |
| Lowest pressure | 934 mbar (hPa); 27.58 inHg |
| Fatalities | 19 direct, 3 indirect |
| Damage | $1.3 billion (2002 USD) |
| Areas affected | Venezuela, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Yucatán Peninsula, Louisiana, Mississippi |
| Part of the 2002 Atlantic hurricane season | |
Hurricane Isidore was the ninth named storm and the second hurricane in the 2002 Atlantic hurricane season. Isidore was the fifth of eight named storms to occur in September. The tropical cyclone peaked as a Category 3 hurricane, causing damage as well as four fatalities in Jamaica, Cuba, Mexico, and the United States. Isidore is noted for threatening to strike the northern Gulf Coast as a Category 4 hurricane, but instead striking as a moderate tropical storm due to a track change that brought the storm over the Yucatán Peninsula for over a day, which significantly weakened the cyclone. Its primary impact was the heavy rainfall which fell across southeast Mexico and from the central United States Gulf coast into the Ohio Valley.
On September 9, a tropical wave moved off the coast of Africa. Despite moving through a dry environment, its convection became organized as an anticyclone developed over the wave. On September 14, convection was well-organized enough around a small closed wind circulation to classify the system as Tropical Depression Ten near Trinidad and Tobago. Land interaction from Venezuela later weakened the depression back to a tropical wave. The wave continued west-northwestward through the Caribbean, and redeveloped into a tropical depression on September 17 while 140 miles (230 km) south of Jamaica.
Embedded within a weak steering current, it drifted to the northwest, and strengthened into Tropical Storm Isidore on September 18 near Jamaica. After grazing the island, it quickly intensified to a hurricane late on September 19 while south of Cuba. Isidore's maximum sustained winds reached 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) near the Isle of Youth, and weakened slightly to an 85 miles per hour (137 km/h) hurricane as it made landfall on Cabo Frances late on September 20. The hurricane crossed the island, then slowed as it moved westward across the Gulf of Mexico. Favorable conditions aloft with warm water temperatures allowed Isidore to quickly intensify to a peak of 125 miles per hour (201 km/h) winds on September 21.
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Wikipedia