Irene was the ninth named storm and sixth hurricane of the 1999 hurricane season. It developed in the western Caribbean Sea on October 13 from a tropical wave. It moved northward, hitting western Cuba before attaining hurricane status. Irene struck Florida on October 15 as a Category 1 hurricane, first at Key West and later near Cape Sable. Despite being only a Category 1 hurricane, Irene caused eight indirect deaths and USD 800 million in damage across Florida.
About Hurricane Irene (1999) in brief
Irene was the ninth named storm and sixth hurricane of the 1999 hurricane season. It developed in the western Caribbean Sea on October 13 from a tropical wave. It moved northward, hitting western Cuba before attaining hurricane status. Irene struck Florida on October 15 as a Category 1 hurricane, first at Key West and later near Cape Sable. The hurricane first produced heavy rainfall across western Cuba, causing four deaths and damage. It later dropped 10 to 20 inches of rainfall in the Miami metropolitan area, causing urban flooding unseen since Hurricane Dennis in 1981. Despite being only a Category 1 hurricane, Irene caused eight indirect deaths and USD 800 million in damage across Florida. It approached the Carolinas but remained offshore. On October 18, as it interacted with very warm ocean waters and the upper level trough, Irene rapidly intensified, reaching peak winds of 110 mph with a pressure of 952 mbar, a Category 2 hurricane. It continued to accelerate to the northeast, steadily weakening until becoming extratropical on October 19 to the south of Newfoundland. By the following day, the system became extratopical due to cooler waters to the southeast of Newfoundland and was quickly absorbed by another extatropical storm late that same day. In Cuba, slightly over 228,000 residents were evacuated from low-lying areas before the storm. Around 10% stayed in temporary shelters, while the rest stayed with family or friends. The storm forced the closure of some schools and the cancellation of some flights.
It forced 6,000 tourists to stay in rickety houses and 1,000 cattle to be transported to higher ground. It also caused flooding and caused one death in the northwestern Bahamas. In North Carolina and Virginia, Ine produced over 10 inches of rain, adding more flooding after previous hurricanes Dennis and Floyd. The flooding closed many roads, and caused rivers to crest past their banks, though damage in the area was relatively minor. The Cuban government issued a hurricane watch for Pinar del Río Province, Havana, Havana Province, Isla de la Juventud, and Matanzas Province, before Irene hit the west-central portion of the state on October 21. These areas were upgraded to a hurricane warning hours before Irene hit the state. Inene weakened to a tropical storm before making landfall on the west coast of Florida, weakening to tropical storm strength and weakening to a weak tropical storm. It was absorbed by a larger, larger extraterrestrial storm late on October 22. It is still listed as the sixth hurricane of the 1999 Hurricane season by the National Hurricane System and the National Institute of Hurricane Research and Institut of Meteorology. It has been named Irene in the U.S. and Irene is the name of a number of other tropical storms, including Irene, which formed in the Pacific Ocean on October 12, 1999, and Irene in the Atlantic Ocean on October 13.
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This page is based on the article Hurricane Irene (1999) published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 04, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
