Hurricane Gloria was the first significant tropical cyclone to strike the northeastern United States since Hurricane Agnes in 1972. It was a powerful Cape Verde hurricane that formed during the 1985 Atlantic hurricane season, originating from a tropical wave on September 16. Gloria quickly intensified, and the next day reached peak winds of 145 mph. The hurricane weakened before striking the Outer Banks of North Carolina on September 27. Gloria made two subsequent landfalls on Long Island and across the coastline of western Connecticut, before becoming extratropical over New England. The remnants of Gloria moved through Atlantic Canada, eventually dissipating on October 2.
About Hurricane Gloria in brief
Hurricane Gloria was the first significant tropical cyclone to strike the northeastern United States since Hurricane Agnes in 1972. It was a powerful Cape Verde hurricane that formed during the 1985 Atlantic hurricane season, originating from a tropical wave on September 16 in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. Gloria quickly intensified, and the next day reached peak winds of 145 mph. The hurricane weakened before striking the Outer Banks of North Carolina on September 27. Later that day, Gloria made two subsequent landfalls on Long Island and across the coastline of western Connecticut, before becoming extratropical over New England. The remnants of Gloria moved through Atlantic Canada, eventually dissipating on October 2. In general, Gloria’s strongest winds remained east of the center, which largely spared locations from North Carolina to New Jersey. Fallen trees caused six of the storm’s fourteen deaths. Widespread crop damage occurred, amounting to about USD 20 million. Overall damage in the United States was estimated at USD 900 million, which was less than expected. Flooding forced several highways to close, and in Pennsylvania, thousands were forced to evacuate their homes. The Long Island Lighting Company was shut down and replaced with a public company. The storm surge destroyed 48 homes on Long Island, while the winds damaged the roofs of many more. The longest power outage in Connecticut history, affecting 1.5 million people at some point, caused the Long Island lighting company to be shut down. In neighboring Canada, the remnants of Gloria caused minor power outages in New Brunswick, although confusion related to the storm’s arrival led to the creation of the Canadian Hurricane Centre.
In 2008, a preliminary reanalysis released in 2008 suggested that Gloria’s peak intensity was about 155 mph, making it a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale. However, because there was little difference in the flight-level winds and the surface winds, this was estimated to have been Gloria’speak, making the peak intensity of Gloria’s intensity about 930 mph. At this time, the lowest pressure measured by reconnaissance aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean was measured over the Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, in the northern Atlantic Ocean on September 30. It is estimated that a tropical depression formed on September 16 near Cape Verde, with an associated low-level circulation. The next day, the depression intensified into Tropical Storm Gloria, but there was no further intensification. On September 18, Gloria weakened back to tropical depression status, but re-intensified into a tropical storm on Sept 20. After having moved generally to the west, Gloria turned more to the West-northwest on September-22. This occurred after tropical storms Fabian and Henri weakened the ridge. It initially remained a minimal hurricane until September 24 when it began quickly intensifying. That day, it became a major hurricane while passing northeast the Bahamas. At 0120 UTC on September 25, Gloria was producing a 10 mi wide eye, surrounded by an eyewall and eyewalls of 919 mbar.
You want to know more about Hurricane Gloria?
This page is based on the article Hurricane Gloria published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 05, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
