Hurricane Karl (2010)

Hurricane Karl

Category 3 major hurricane (SSHWS/NWS)
Hurricane Karl rapidly intensifying in the Bay of Campeche on September 16
Formed	September 14, 2010
Dissipated	September 18, 2010
Highest winds	1-minute sustained: 125 mph (205 km/h)
Lowest pressure	956 mbar (hPa); 28.23 inHg
Fatalities	22 total
Damage	$206 million (2010 USD)
Areas affected	Belize, Yucatán Peninsula, Veracruz
Part of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season

Hurricane Karl was the most destructive tropical cyclone on record to strike the Mexican state of Veracruz. The eleventh tropical storm, sixth hurricane, and fifth and final major hurricane of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, Karl formed from an area of low pressure which had formed off of the northern coast Venezuela on September 11. It crossed the Caribbean and was upgraded to Tropical Storm Karl on September 14. The cyclone made landfall on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico as a strong tropical storm, and then rapidly strengthened in the Bay of Campeche before it made landfall near Veracruz, Veracruz, on the central Mexican Gulf coast, as a major hurricane. This marked the first known time that a major hurricane existed in the Bay of Campeche.

As of September 23, 22 people have been confirmed killed, most of which were in the state of Veracruz. Final insured losses from the storm are estimated at $206 million USD as of January 2011.

The origins of Hurricane Karl were from the interaction between a surface trough and westward-tracking tropical wave. The trough—an elongated area of low pressure—emerged from an area of disorganized monsoonal convection just north of South America over the Windward Islands in early September. A few days later, the wave, which had departed the coast of Africa on September 1, approached the area and merged with the trough by September 8 as it slowed. For several days, the resultant low-pressure system lingered toward the west-northwest over the Caribbean Sea, and provided with a diffluent environment aloft it generated disorganized patches of convection. Although the convection remained disassociated from the mean low feature, the overall wind circulation continued to become better defined at the surface. The development trend briefly became disrupted by September 13, however, with the surface low confirmed no longer to exist under the improving convective structure. Conditions remained favorable for reorganization, and a small but consolidated circulation center developed by 2100 UTC September 14. In real time, this marked the formation of Tropical Storm Karl when it was located about 270 mi (435 km) east of Chetumal, Mexico, though post-storm reanalysis revealed a tropical depression had in fact formed six hours earlier.