Hurricane Kyle (2002)

Hurricane Kyle (2002)

Hurricane Kyle was the eleventh named storm and third hurricane of the 2002 Atlantic hurricane season. Kyle developed as a subtropical cyclone on September 20 to the east-southeast of Bermuda. It transitioned into a tropical cyclone and became a hurricane on September 25. On October 11, the cyclone turned northeastward and made landfalls near Charleston, South Carolina, and Long Beach, North Carolina. Kyle dissipated on October 12 as it was absorbed by an approaching cold front.

About Hurricane Kyle (2002) in brief

Summary Hurricane Kyle (2002)Hurricane Kyle was the eleventh named storm and third hurricane of the 2002 Atlantic hurricane season. Kyle developed as a subtropical cyclone on September 20 to the east-southeast of Bermuda. It transitioned into a tropical cyclone and became a hurricane on September 25. On October 11, the cyclone turned northeastward and made landfalls near Charleston, South Carolina, and Long Beach, North Carolina. After lasting as a cyclone for 22 days, Kyle dissipated on October 12 as it was absorbed by an approaching cold front. The hurricane brought light precipitation to Bermuda, but no significant damage was reported there. Kyle spawned at least four tornadoes, the costliest of which struck Georgetown, South South Carolina; it damaged 106 buildings and destroyed seven others, causing eight injuries. Overall damage totaled about USD 5 million, and no direct deaths were reported. Kyle contributed to one indirect death in the British Isles; it was the fifth-longest-lived Atlantic tropical or subtropicals cyclone. It is estimated that the system developed into a sub-tropical depression late on September 20, about 490 miles southeast of Bermuda, and as such was named Kyle by the National Hurricane Center.

The storm was named by the NWS on September 21; Kyle tracked north-northeastward before gradually executing a clockwise loop. On September 28, after turning west-northwestward, the hurricane weakened to tropical storm status, and by the next day the center had become devoid of deep convection. Kyle became a tropical depression on October 1, developing some thunderstorms southeast of the center, developing into the mid-level circulation of the storm on October 4. It then weakened again on October 5, and Kyle weakened again to tropical depression status on October 6. Kyle was forecast to regain hurricane status about 65 mph (100 km/h) on October 7. However, operationally it was forecast that the storm would not make it to hurricane status by that time. Kyle weakened to a tropical storm after the storm encountered further wind shear, which left the center exposed from the convection by further wind, which shear left the storm exposed by the time it made it to the Atlantic Ocean on October 8. Kyle then weakened to the tropical storm level on October 9, and the storm was no longer a hurricane by October 10. It was then absorbed by a cold front on October 11.