Tropical Storm Nicole (2010)
| Tropical storm (SSHWS/NWS) | |
Tropical Storm Nicole near Cuba on September 29
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| Formed | September 28, 2010 |
|---|---|
| Dissipated | September 30, 2010 |
| (Extratropical after September 29) | |
| Highest winds |
1-minute sustained: 45 mph (75 km/h) |
| Lowest pressure | 995 mbar (hPa); 29.38 inHg |
| Fatalities | 16 dead |
| Damage | $240 million (2010 USD) |
| Areas affected | Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Cuba, Florida, Bahamas, United States East Coast |
| Part of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season | |
Tropical Storm Nicole was a short-lived and unusually asymmetric tropical cyclone that caused extensive rainfall and flooding in Jamaica during the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season. It was the sixteenth tropical cyclone and the fourteenth named storm of the season, as well as the last of a record eight tropical storms to form in September. Originating from a broad monsoonal low, Nicole became a tropical depression over the northwestern Caribbean Sea on September 28. It maintained an unusual structure as it tracked northeastward, with a poorly defined wind circulation and few thunderstorms near its center. Nicole approached the coast of Cuba as a weak tropical storm, losing its status as a tropical cyclone over the territory on September 29. The remnants emerged over the Bahamas and eventually became absorbed by a separate extratropical system.
Due to Nicole's atypical structure, the strongest thundershowers were well removed from the center; most of the weather activity occurred over the north-central Caribbean. In Jamaica, the storm triggered widespread power outages across more than 288,000 residences. Extreme precipitation of up to 37.42 inches (940 mm) caused disastrous flooding in several parishes, severely damaging or destroying 528 houses. The devastation extended to the island's farmland and environment, which suffered from expansive water pollution. In all, Nicole wrought an estimated $240 million (2010 USD) in damage throughout Jamaica, and there were sixteen fatalities. Elsewhere, minor flooding occurred in Cuba, Florida, and the Cayman Islands. The remnants of the storm contributed to a large disturbance along the East Coast of the United States, causing additional damage and deaths.
In late September 2010, a wide band of disturbed weather and low pressure, associated with the monsoon trough and remnant tropical moisture from Tropical Storm Matthew, meandered over the northwestern Caribbean Sea. With a broad upper ridge anchored along the Yucatán coast, diffluence aloft in the vicinity of the disturbance provided focus for the development of scattered convection. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) noted an environment supportive of tropical development, and by September 27 a broad surface low formed amid the convection. The next day, surface pressures steadily dropped as sustained winds around the low increased to near tropical storm force. Throughout the development process, moderate westerly wind shear over the region caused the disturbance to exhibit a rather asymmetric structure; it developed an elongated low-pressure center by September 28, well to the northwest of its strongest wind field. Despite the asymmetry, the NHC initiated advisories on a tropical depression around 15:00 UTC that day, after surface and satellite observations revealed a sufficiently defined circulation center west of the deep convection. Post-season reassessments, however, indicated that a tropical storm had in fact formed three hours earlier, about 75 miles (120 km) south of Cuba's Isle of Youth.
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