John Wendel Meteorologist

There are still two months left in the 2008 hurricane season. The peak of the season passed back on Sept. 10 and the chance for more storms diminishes as every day goes by. It is still possible we could have a landfall hurricane in the United States but they would be more likely to occur in the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean. But, considering this has been a very odd season, nothing would surprise me. And it all started with the oddball storm Arthur.

Storm tracks during 2008 Hurricane Season

Alma/Arthur

At the end of May, a tropical storm formed in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and it was named Alma. What made this storm interesting is that it moved to the east and moved out of the Pacific basin into the Atlantic basin, making it the first storm in the Pacific and Atlantic. Alma's named then changed to Arthur. So basically, the storm had a gender or sex change. The storm never became a hurricane but it did dump heavy rain over Central America.

Bertha

The second storm of the season was Bertha, which developed in early July. The odd part about this hurricane was where it developed. On July 3, a tropical wave moved off the West African coast and formed a circulation. The storm formed near the Cape Verde Islands and storms typically don't develop in the area until the middle of August. It developed about 5 weeks early and the last time a storm formed in that area five weeks early was another Bertha back in 1996. That's the same Bertha that hit the Carolina coast with winds close to 100 mph. This Bertha tracked into the Central Atlantic and then curved to the north becoming what we call a fish storm.

Cristobal

The third storm of the season was Cristobal. This storm formed miles off the South Carolina coast on July 19 and then tracked along the North Carolina coast and then moved out to seas. The peak winds were as high as 55mph but those winds remained off shore. The coastal communities had winds up to 35mph. The biggest effect on the state from Cristobal was the 1 to 3 inches of rain that fell over the large forest fires in the eastern part of the state near Greenville.

Dolly

Dolly was the forth storm of the season to develop and even though it developed in the Caribbean and made landfall near the southern Texas town of Brownsville, it still had some effect on the weather in Charlotte. After the storm weakened and tracked across Texas, it finally wound up spinning over Colorado as a weak low pressure center. The low then got caught in the westerly winds and moved into Missouri and Iowa. The thunderstorm produced by this storm kicked-off tornadoes in the Midwest. The weather system then moved east into the Carolinas spreading rain into the area. This was the first widespread rain of the summer and just what the doctor ordered for our drought.

Edouard

Tropical Storm Edouard was the next storm of the season. Edouard formed in the Gulf of Mexico and moved off the coast near Louisiana and made landfall in Texas. Even though Edouard was not a major storm it was responsible for gas prices going up 5 to 10 cents. Just like Dolly, Edouard moved west into Texas and weakened. The storm stalled and started to move back to the east. As the storm moved across the southern states it spread rain as far north as the Charlotte area with a half-inch to 1 inch of rain.

At this point of the year you may be thinking we have had a wild hurricane season so far. Well folks, we are just getting started and it is going to get worse with the next storm giving us one of the craziest storm tracks I have seen in a long time.

Fay

Tropical Storm Fay formed near the Dominican Republic and Haiti on August 16, producing heavy rain and flooding. After tracking across Cuba it moved toward Florida. The peak winds with Fay were up to 55mph but the biggest problem that Fay will be noted for is its flooding rain. As Fay moved up the Florida Peninsula it made a stop near Cape Canaveral. Almost 20 inches of rain fell in Melbourne, Fla., over a two-day period. During the next couple of days the remnants if Fay moved slowly to the west into Mississippi causing localized flooding.

After a short stay in Mississippi, the track took the storm toward Charlotte more than a week after it made landfall in Florida. We all remember the pictures of Brier Creek over its banks and flooding homes near the Mint Museum in Charlotte, or the flooded roads along the Rocky River in Cabarrus County. Six to 8 inches of rain fell, giving the entire piedmont hope that the drought may be over or at least we were catching up in a big way. I would talk more about this storm except there is so much more to go.

Gustav

On August 25, a strong low pressure system developed in the Caribbean and turned into the next named storm, which was Gustav. Gustav hit western Cuba as a Category 4 storm with winds near 135 mph and it was heading toward New Orleans. This year there were no problems evacuating the city days before the predicted landfall. Of course oil platforms were evacuated and the price of oil went up. Many of the evacuees went to Baton Rogue, La.

Gustav tracked farther to the west and spared New Orleans from the worse winds and the levees held. Unfortunately, Baton Rogue was hit hard with winds over 90 mph trapping the evacuees in a city without power for several days to a week. The remnants of Gustav then tracked to the north across the Ohio River valley and stayed west and north of Charlotte.

Hanna

As Gustav was slamming into Louisiana, the next in a series of storms was spinning around near Haiti in the Caribbean. After sitting over the same area off the Haitian coast for three days, Hanna started moving quickly northward. Hanna made landfall near Wrightsville Beach, N.C., on Sept. 6. Because of the fast forward speed of Hanna, the storm didn't last very long in North Carolina.

The west edge of the rain made it to the Mecklenburg/Union County line. The Rockingham area received almost 4 inches of rain while no rain fell at the airport in Charlotte. The storm struck early in the morning but moved quickly into Virginia by noon. Because of its speed, if you were in Charlotte on that Saturday morning and got up late you would never had known there was even a tropical storm hitting the state. Skies were sunny in the afternoon and it was a bit breezy.

Ike

The biggest and most devastating storm of the season was now developing in the eastern Atlantic to the east of the Bahamas and once again, Haiti. Ike became a Category 4 storm with winds over 140 mph. Ike tracked almost the full length of Cuba with strong winds and heavy rain but it also weakened just a little bit.

Once the storm moved back over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico it regained its strength and was heading toward the oil rich area of Houston and Galveston, Texas. One thing hurricane forecasters noticed about Ike was the size of the tropical storm-force and hurricane-force wind field. Tropical storm force winds extend from the center by 270 miles and hurricane force winds were out 120 miles.

Ike came on shore near Galveston with a 10- to 12-foot storm surge, which covered the island in many places. Buildings were destroyed and life there will never be the same. Ike then passed over Houston, knocking out power to more than 5 million people in the region. Large office builds in the downtown area were ravaged with broken glass everywhere. A week later there were still a million people with out power.

The biggest effect Ike had on the Carolinas has been the gas shortage. Refineries were shut down and even though it took more than a week or two to get them up and running, many places in the Southeast still have gas problems. Here again, I could go on talking about this storm but there are more out there to talk about.

Josephine

At one point in early September there were four storms out there, from the mid-Atlantic to the United States. There were the remnants of Gustav, Hanna moving up the coast, Ike moving into the Caribbean and now Josephine forming in the central Atlantic. Luckily, Josephine stayed a tropical storm and stayed in the middle of the Atlantic. This one was just a fish storm.

Kyle

A low pressure system developing over Puerto Rico dropped more than 2 feet of rain over parts of the island. This low eventually developed into Hurricane Kyle and it moved northward off the east coast of the United States. It was far enough away that no rain hit the Carolinas but the waves at the coast were very high. What made Kyle an interesting storm is that it made landfall as a category 1 hurricane in Nova Scotia, Canada. Even though landfall hurricanes are rare along the Canadian coast they do happen -- 144 mph wind gusts and 100 mph sustained winds hit Halifax Harbour when Hurricane Juan moved onshore in 2003.

Laura

The last of the season's storms as of writing this article is Extra Tropical Storm Laura. I don't have a lot of information about Laura because it developed in the Atlantic and is tracking into the North Atlantic. The track could take the remnants of Laura to the east and England bringing wind and rain there.

All I can say at this point of the hurricane season is "wow." Three weeks after Hurricane Ike, we still have lines of cars looking for gas and the power is finally back on in Houston. One place that was hit hard several times this season was Haiti. Hundreds of people have died and tens of thousands have been looking for food. Food has been getting there but it has been a slow process. One good thing that has come out of the active hurricane season is that it has gotten us out of the drought. Almost every one of the 12 tropical systems had some interesting features to them and the season is not over yet.

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