Hurricane Opal
| Category 4 major hurricane (SSHWS/NWS) | |
Hurricane Opal nearing peak intensity early on October 4
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| Formed | September 27, 1995 |
|---|---|
| Dissipated | October 6, 1995 |
| (Extratropical after October 5) | |
| Highest winds |
1-minute sustained: 150 mph (240 km/h) |
| Lowest pressure | 916 mbar (hPa); 27.05 inHg |
| Fatalities | 63 total |
| Damage | $5.1 billion (1995 USD) |
| Areas affected |
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| Part of the 1995 Atlantic hurricane season | |
Hurricane Opal was a Category 4 hurricane with the lowest barometric pressure in a hurricane which did not reach Category 5 strength within the north Atlantic basin. Opal formed in the Gulf of Mexico in September 1995. Opal was the ninth hurricane and the strongest of the abnormally active 1995 Atlantic hurricane season. It crossed the Yucatán Peninsula while still a tropical depression on September 27, then strengthened and moved northward in the Gulf, becoming the most powerful Category 4 Atlantic hurricane before making a second landfall October 4 in the Florida Panhandle near Pensacola as a 115-mph (185-km/h) hurricane. Opal devastated the Pensacola/Panhandle area with a 15-ft (5-m) storm surge and traveled up the entire state of Alabama, becoming a tropical storm in Tennessee. Opal also caused heavy damage in the mid-Atlantic states before dissipating.
Throughout the storm's path from Central America into the Ohio Valley, 63 people died in storm-related events. Losses attributed to Opal exceeded $5.1 billion, much of which took place in the United States. The name "Opal" was retired in 1996, replaced by "Olga" for the 2001 season.
The origins of Hurricane Opal were linked using satellite imagery and synoptic analyses to a tropical wave that left the western coast of Africa on September 11. Ten days later, the disturbance had crossed the central Atlantic and had reached the Lesser Antilles. Continuing to track westward, the disturbance showed little signs of organization before entering the western Caribbean Sea on September 23. There, the wave became entangled with a broad area of low-pressure east of Nicaragua, and the combined system drifted west-northwestward toward the Yucatán Peninsula. Even then, the disturbance lacked any significant development. However, a burst of thunderstorm activity occurred near the storm's center on September 27, prompting the National Hurricane Center (NHC) to declare the system a tropical depression at 18:00 UTC that day. At the time, the depression was centered 80 mi (130 km) south-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico.
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Wikipedia