|
|
|
|
Hurricane with 3 Names
08/14/2002
Listen in RealAudio 
The 1961 hurricane season started slowly, with only one storm developing before September. But the following ten weeks brought eight more storms, including one whose name would later be retired in infamy.
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is The Weather Notebook.
Hurricane Hattie developed rapidly in the waters off the Panama Canal around October 25th and moved northward. Soon, it curved west toward the British Honduran Coast in what's now known as Belize.
On Halloween Hattie slammed into Belize City as a category 5 hurricane, a devastating storm. Sustained 75 mph winds gusted to 200 with a storm surge of 13 feet. The off shore village and most residents of Calabash Cay vanished. Seventy-five percent of greater Belize City was destroyed, half the buildings within the city were gone.
Most hurricanes dissipate when they move inland and lose their energy source. But not Hattie.
On November 1st, the weakened storm crossed Mexico to reemerge in Pacific waters. Renamed
Tropical Storm Simone by the San Francisco Weather Office, it moved westward, then took a
northerly turn across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec back into the Atlantic. Weakened to a tropical
depression, the system limped into Gulf of Mexico waters. There it rallied for the last time,
reaching tropical storm status on November 4th. Renamed Inga, the storm remained in the Bay
of Campeche for several days, perhaps briefly reaching hurricane force again before dying in the
ocean where it was born.
Hattie claimed 275 lives, mostly around Belize City. That name will never be used to describe another storm.
Thanks today to contributing writer Keith Heidorn. The Weather Notebook is a production of The Mount Washington Observatory and is funded generously by Subaru of America and The National Science Foundation.
Today's Links
1961 Hurricane Tracking Info
http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/atlantic/1961/
|
|
