1978 Atlantic hurricane season

More storms, fewer hurricane hours

The National Hurricane Center named 11 storms in 1978, five of them hurricanes, slightly above the 1944 to 1977 average of 9.8. Hurricane-force winds were rare, though: the year logged 307 hurricane hours against a 30-year average of 620. Six named storms came from African waves and five from old fronts, cold upper lows and other non-tropical beginnings. The year also held a subtropical storm on 18 January, which the NHC described as the first storm of at least storm strength on record to form in that month.

The site's 12 tropical storms are the 11 named storms plus the January subtropical storm, whose track begins the season's map on 18 January. Accumulated cyclone energy comes to 66.6. The current best track gives the same 11 named storms, five hurricanes and two majors. 1978 was the last season to use an all-female list of names.

In its review, the NHC worried that track forecasting had not improved since the early 1970s despite new computers and satellites. It blamed in part the operational 500 mb analyses fed to its forecast models, which in 1978 barely showed a storm's own circulation. It also warned that the long absence of a major hurricane on the U.S. East Coast and in most of Florida, while coastal populations grew, could breed apathy.

Amelia's rains and three western Gulf landfalls

Tropical Storm Amelia formed in the southwest Gulf of Mexico on 30 July and crossed the Texas coast south of Corpus Christi late that day with peak winds of only 45 kt. Its moist air then moved inland. From 1 to 3 August, long after Amelia's surface center had vanished, rains of more than 30 inches fell in Shackleford County near Abilene and northwest of San Antonio, including 26 inches in 12 hours at one site. The Guadalupe River and its tributaries flooded. The NHC counted 33 deaths and put damage in the tens of millions of dollars; later estimates give $110 million in 1978 dollars and rainfall of up to 48 inches.

Tropical Storm Bess formed from a low that drifted off a dying front over Georgia and moved southwest across the Gulf under a blocking ridge over south Texas. It peaked at 45 kt on 7 August and came ashore near Nautla, Mexico, early on 8 August with no reported casualties. Tropical Storm Debra formed about 400 nautical miles south of New Orleans on 26 August and reached its 50 kt, 1000 mb peak just before landfall in Louisiana early on 29 August. Tides reached 4 to 5 feet on the Louisiana coast, a tornado killed one person in Mississippi, and one more died on an offshore oil rig.

Cora by satellite and Ella off the Outer Banks

Hurricane Cora grew from an African wave that left the coast on 4 August, and it raced west at about 20 kt. Forecasters upgraded it to a tropical storm and then a hurricane on satellite pictures alone, estimating 80 kt and 980 mb early on 9 August; the NHC noted only Doris and Gladys of 1975 had been upgraded that way. By the time the first aircraft arrived that afternoon, Cora had weakened, and it fell apart in the southeast Caribbean on 11 August after crossing the Windward Islands with squalls near 40 kt.

Hurricane Ella formed in a decaying front about 500 nautical miles southeast of Bermuda on 30 August and became a hurricane on 31 August southeast of Cape Hatteras. A ridge bridged the trough that should have carried it away, and Ella drifted north at 4 kt or less for at least a day while it weakened. The NHC issued a hurricane watch for the Outer Banks at the start of the Labor Day weekend, and the only effect there was beach erosion and, the media reported, a disappointed tourist trade. A new trough on 3 September accelerated Ella northeast, and aircraft measured 956 mb and 120 kt on 4 September before it passed close to southeastern Newfoundland and turned extratropical.

Hurricane Greta along Honduras to Belize

Greta came from the wave directly behind Flossie's, so that two African waves in a row produced hurricanes. It formed 75 nautical miles west-northwest of Port of Spain, Trinidad, on 13 September, an unusual spot for development, and became a hurricane south of Jamaica on 16 September. Its eyewall crossed the extreme northeast coast of Honduras as it reached its lowest pressure of 947 mb and 115 kt early on 18 September. Satellite loops showed the eye appearing to bounce off the coast, sparing the rest of Honduras's north shore.

Greta weakened before it came ashore near Stann Creek, Belize, at 00 UTC on 19 September with an estimated central pressure of 964 mb. Winds reached 80 kt there and tides rose up to 7 feet above sea level. The NHC listed one death in Honduras and four in Belize, and an unofficial estimate put Belize's damage at $25 million, mostly crops and utilities. Greta crossed into the Pacific, regenerated as Olivia and became a hurricane before looping back onto the Mexican coast. The NHC contrasted it with Fifi in 1974, which followed a similar track as a weaker but much wetter storm.

Flossie, Hope, Irma, Juliet and Kendra

Hurricane Flossie formed midway across the Atlantic on 4 September, weakened to a depression as it recurved, then stalled and grew an eye far out at sea, peaking at 85 kt and 976 mb on 13 September by satellite estimate. Tropical Storm Hope began as a subtropical depression off northeast Florida, passed north of Bermuda and turned tropical on 17 September; a ship crossing its center measured 987 mb. Tropical Storm Irma formed south of the Azores and passed between the western and central islands on 5 October with no reported damage. Tropical Storm Juliet formed east of Puerto Rico in early October and stayed at sea.

Hurricane Kendra, the last storm, did most of its damage before it formed. Rain from the disturbed weather that seeded it dropped up to 18 inches on Puerto Rico from 22 to 27 October, and newspaper reports put damage there at about $6 million, all from water, with one death and about 1,000 families sheltered. Kendra became a depression east of the Bahamas on 28 October, reached 70 kt the next day and weakened in strong westerlies by 31 October.