We resume the 2005 season-in-review series tonight with a look at July, one of the most active on record in this most active on-record season. Five storms formed within the month -- Cindy, , Emily, Franklin, and Gert -- with two of these having significant impacts on landmasses, and Emily.
Cindy got its start in a region where many storms got their start this season, the northwestern Caribbean Sea, forming from an early season tropical wave on July 3rd. Cindy initially moved across the Yucatan Peninsula as a tropical depression, only strengthening to a tropical storm as it emerged into the central Gulf of Mexico. It's evolution was much like that seen with a month prior, though Cindy had a much more favorable near-landfall oceanic energy profile due to its track a bit further to the west in the Gulf. Cindy organized up until landfall, likely as a minimal hurricane in the post analysis, and made landfall south of New Orleans late on July 5th. Once inland, it weakened fairly rapidly and disspiated early on July 7th across the Ohio River valley. One death was reported by the with Cindy, with only minimal damage noted in the US.
Dennis was the season's first storm not to form in the extreme western reaches of the basin, forming in the extreme southeast Caribbean on July 5th. This is striking for two reasons: climatologically speaking, it was a bit further to the east than we normally see development so early in the season, and it formed in a region where storms tend not to form and develop if they have not already done so at that point. However, the conditions this season were not typical; found itself south of a climatologically strong upper-level ridge and in a region of above average sea surface temperatures. After becoming classified, continued to develop at a steady pace as it moved toward the west-northwest across the Caribbean Sea, becoming a tropical storm later in the day on July 5th and a hurricane late in the day on July 6th.
From inception, track models suggested a potential threat to the islands of the western Caribbean, particularly Cuba and Jamaica. As it became a hurricane, slid to the south of Hispaniola -- but took aim on Jamaica in the process. Unlike and last season, however, did not slide south of the island at the last minute; instead, it slid north of the island in the narrow passage between it and Cuba on July 7th as a category 2 hurricane. Keeping over water, found itself in a region favorable for further strengthening, quickly become a category 4 hurricane upon approach to the eastern end of Cuba early on July 8th. Later that day, as neared the western end of Cuba, it made a run at category 5 intensity, peaking with winds of 130kt and a pressure of 938mb. At the time, was the most intense storm for such a point in the tropical season. made landfall over western Cuba late on the 8th, where it stayed traveling the length of the western end of the island until early on the 9th.
Once emerged into the southeastern portion of the Gulf of Mexico, it took some time to reorganize. Satellite appearance of the storm was rather unimpressive, with little deep convection, and the wind profile associated with the storm was rather flat. As day became night on the 9th of July, however, the storm passed near a warm eddy and began to rapidly intensify, going from 90kt/955mb to 125kt/934mb in just 10hr. would ultimately bottom out at a pressure of 930mb and gradually weaken through until landfall under less favorable SSTs and upper level winds. In the Gulf, the storm gradually turned toward the northwest, north-northwest, and ultimately just west of north, accelerating as it went along. This track and speed contributed to the development of a trapped wave that would submerge much of the western Big Bend of Florida as the storm made landfall further to the west on July 10th. ultimately made landfall as a major hurricane near Pensacola, FL -- not far from where made landfall in 2004 -- during the afternoon of July 10th. It continued toward the north-northwest after landfall, where it ultimately stalled out over the upper midwestern states and brought some locally heavy rains. The current report on shows the storm as responsible for 41 deaths and US damage of $1.84 billion.
As was making landfall, yet another tropical wave was taking advantage of the favorable conditions in the central Atlantic. A tropical depression formed late on the 10th of July and became Tropical Storm Emily about a day later. Moving fairly rapidly on the southern periphery of a deep layer ridge of high pressure, Emily struggled to get organized, approaching the southern Lesser Antilles as a moderate tropical storm. However, as it neared the islands, it began to slow down and organize fairly rapidly, becoming a hurricane near the ABC islands late on July 13th. Emily would continue to organize from there, reaching category 4 (115kt) intensity early on July 15th as it passed south of Hispaniola. Emily briefly weakened for a time, possibly due to a cold wake left by and possibly due to entrainment of dry air off of the South American continent, becoming a category 2 hurricane (90kt) later that day.
From there, however, Emily began to set its sights on Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and the Yucatan Peninsula. Emily quickly strengthened once again on the 16th of July, touching the border of category 4/5 intensity late that day (135kt/929mb). This made it the most intense storm on record in the basin for the month of July, surpassing the aforementioned mark set by earlier in the month. Turbulence within the storm was quite strong, with quite a bit of lightning and strong updrafts noted by crew members on a field project that was underway in Costa Rica during this time period. Emily fortunately largely spared Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, moving to the south of both locales; however, the Yucatan Peninsula and Cozumel would not be as lucky. Emily made landfall as a minimal category 4 hurricane late in the day on July 17th, weakening to a category 1 storm as it traversed the Yucatan on the 18th.
Much like , Emily took some time to become reorganized as it entered the Gulf of Mexico. It too would encounter a warm eddy, however, and as the afternoon of the 19th progressed Emily quickly strengthened from a high-end category 1 to a high-end category 3 storm. As it continued to the west-northwest, hurricane warnings were hoisted for the northern Mexico and southern Texas coastlines, with primary attention paid to the northern part of Mexico. Emily maintained its strength in the high end of the category 3 range as it approached the coast, making landfall as a 110kt category 3 storm on July 20th in northern Mexico. About a day later, Emily dissipated over the highlands of Mexico, albeit bringing quite a bit of rain to the region as it did so. The reported 5 deaths attributable to Emily, with minimal damage in the US.
While and Emily rightfully garnered much of the attention for July, there were yet two storms still to go during the month. The first of these, Franklin, formed just as Emily was dissipating over Mexico on the 21st of July. Forming from the interaction of a tropical wave with an upper-level low near the central Bahamas, Franklin had two distinct lifecycles. The first happened early in its lifetime, as it quickly became a tropical storm late on the 21st and approached hurricane intensity early on the 23rd. During this time, the storm moved slowly toward the north and then northeast, paralleling the US coastline from afar. Franklin then turned toward the east, threatening Bermuda, but weakened to a minimal tropical storm as it did so from the 24th through the 27th of the month. The storm never truly came close to Bermuda -- closest approach was about 300km late on the 26th of July -- but did warrant the hoisting of tropical storm advisories for the island before it slowed and turned to the north. From there out, the storm gradually accelerated to the north and northeast yet again, undergoing a secondary burst of intensification on July 28th as the storm-relative shear weakened due to this acceleration. Shortly thereafter, though, it moved north of the Gulf Stream, weakened, and then became on the 29th of July. No deaths or damage were noted from Franklin by the .
Gert became the month's last storm, forming during the middle of Franklin's lifecycle on the 23rd of July from a tropical wave moving across the Bay of Campeche, much like Bret almost exactly one month prior. Gert's intensification was kept in check due to a short period of time over water, some impacts of a cool wake left by Emily less than a week prior, and relatively fast movement toward land in the Gulf. Nevertheless, Gert strengthened up until landfall, making landfall a bit south of where Emily did late on July 24th as a 40kt/1005mb tropical storm. Gert rapidly dissipated over the highlands of Mexico on July 25th, but brought additional rains to regions that did not need it. No deaths or damage were noted from Gert by the .
The month of July was quite active in the Atlantic, with the five aforementioned storms, and notable by a lack of activity during the same period of time in the Eastern Pacific. The total of 7 storms before August 1st set a new record for the Atlantic basin and, as noted, one storm set a record for the most intense storm before August 1st -- only to have that record broken a week later by the next storm. The month was dominated by favorable upper-level winds across the western half of the basin, where tropical waves were readily able to tap into the above normal (1-1.5 deg C) SSTs across the region. In many ways, July was a microchasm of the entire season, with a storm formed near an upper-level low (Franklin), a quick storm across the southern Gulf (Gert), a storm impacting the central Gulf coast (Cindy), and a series of very intense storms impacting land in the southwestern portions of the basin (Dennis and Emily). Next time, we'll take a look at the tip of that iceberg with a look at August, including an overview of the costliest hurricane in basin history, . Look for that late this week.
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