1979 Atlantic hurricane season

Few storms, most of them near land

The National Hurricane Center named eight storms in 1979, five of them hurricanes, below the 30-year averages of ten and six even counting a late October subtropical storm. It was the tenth straight year with an average or below-average number of hurricanes. What set the year apart was where the storms went. Many formed close to land and followed long tracks across populated areas: five of the first six needed gale warnings in their first advisory, and only 13 percent of the 3,200 nautical miles of U.S. Gulf and Atlantic coastline escaped a tropical storm or hurricane warning.

After 13 years without a hurricane, the Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Florida's east coast all took hits. Five storms made U.S. landfall, three of them hurricanes. The NHC counted the greatest one-year U.S. damage total from tropical cyclones to that time, and noted that the steady, persistent storm tracks helped produce the second-lowest 24-hour official forecast errors on record.

The site counts 9 tropical storms, the eight named storms plus the October subtropical storm, along with 5 hurricanes and 2 major hurricanes. Accumulated cyclone energy comes to 92.9. The current best track also counts nine systems of storm strength. 1979 was the first Atlantic season whose name list included both male and female names.

Ana, Bob and Claudette's record rain

A June depression gave the season its first tracked point on 11 June, and it caused severe flooding in Jamaica that killed 41 people. Tropical Storm Ana formed near 10°N, 45°W on 19 June, the first June storm east of the Lesser Antilles since 1933, and reached the islands as a minimal storm on 22 June after shear stripped its convection. Hurricane Bob formed in the southwest Gulf on 9 July, strengthened fast as a trough approached, and reached its 65 kt, 986 mb peak near landfall at Grand Isle, Louisiana, at daybreak on 11 July. The NHC recorded one death in Louisiana, with coastal damage under $5 million.

Tropical Storm Claudette left Africa as the strongest wave of the year, reached storm strength east of the Leeward Islands on 17 July, and fell apart over Puerto Rico, where one person drowned. Its remnants re-formed in the Gulf and crossed the Texas-Louisiana border on 24 July. A small high aloft then blocked it, and Claudette traced a tight loop over southeast Texas for a day. An observer near Alvin reported 42 inches of rain in 24 hours, a U.S. record, and several sites topped 30 inches. The NHC estimated $400 million in flood damage and recorded one drowning in Texas; it called Claudette the only storm below hurricane strength in the 25 costliest U.S. tropical cyclones.

Hurricane David in Dominica and the Dominican Republic

David formed about 1,500 miles east of the Lesser Antilles on 25 August and strengthened steadily as the subtropical ridge carried it west. It struck Dominica on 29 August, and the NHC wrote there was little difference in strength between Dominica, Santo Domingo and its 150 kt, 924 mb peak south of Puerto Rico on 30 August. Winds on Dominica probably topped 125 kt and left 60,000 of the island's 80,000 residents homeless. The NHC recorded 56 deaths there and crop losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars across Dominica, Martinique and Guadeloupe.

A sudden turn to the north-northwest brought David inland just west of Santo Domingo on 31 August, the strongest hurricane there since 1930. Rains of nearly 20 inches flooded Puerto Rico, where seven people died and damage reached about $70 million in 1979 dollars. In the Dominican Republic, river floods caused most of the more than 2,000 deaths and over $1 billion in damage, in 1979 dollars, reported by the government, and more than 200,000 people lost their homes. Other accounts give approximately 1,000 deaths in the Dominican Republic and 2,078 across David's whole path.

David along the U.S. East Coast

David weakened to a tropical storm crossing Hispaniola and regained hurricane strength in the Bahamas. Approaching Florida, it jogged north-northwest and came ashore just north of Palm Beach around midday on 3 September with a 972 mb pressure and estimated winds of 85 kt, well below its peak. It then moved back over the ocean, came ashore again near Savannah Beach, Georgia, about a day later with little change, and lost its tropical traits over New York State. Gales reached from southeast Florida to Maine, and a gust hit 152 kt on Mount Washington.

Tornadoes struck Melbourne Beach, Florida, the Washington, D.C., area and Delaware. At one point 2.5 million people in the New York area lost power. About 400,000 people evacuated along the coast. The NHC recorded five U.S. deaths directly caused by David and about 10 more indirect deaths, and estimated U.S. damage at more than $320 million in 1979 dollars. David and Frederic were both retired.

Hurricane Frederic reaches Mobile

Frederic formed south of the Cape Verde Islands on 29 August and briefly became a hurricane on 1 September, but David's outflow spread over it and knocked it back. It crossed the Leeward Islands as a tropical storm, where seven people died when a fishing boat sank at St. Maarten, and then Puerto Rico and Hispaniola, where rains of more than 24 inches added to David's damage in the Dominican Republic. Frederic crept west along or just south of Cuba, regained hurricane strength over western Cuba on 10 September and turned northwest into the Gulf.

An Air Force aircraft measured the lowest pressure of 943 mb at 12 UTC on 12 September, about 200 miles southeast of Mobile, when the site records its 115 kt peak. Aircraft pressures over the last six hours before landfall were 946 mb. The eye crossed Dauphin Island around 03 UTC on 13 September and reached the coast near the Mississippi-Alabama border. The Dauphin Island bridge anemometer recorded sustained hurricane-force winds for more than six hours and a gust of 126 kt. The NHC called it the most intense hurricane of the century in the Mobile-Pascagoula area and the first to strike Mobile directly since 1932.

Tides ran 8 to 12 feet or more above normal from Pascagoula to western Santa Rosa Island, with high-water marks up to 15 feet in Gulf State Park, Alabama. About 250,000 people evacuated. The NHC attributed five U.S. deaths directly to Frederic and estimated damage at $2.3 billion in 1979 dollars, above the $2.1 billion attributed to Agnes in 1972, making it the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time.

Elena, Gloria, Henri and an October subtropical storm

Tropical Storm Elena formed in the central Gulf on 29 August, never exceeded 35 kt and came ashore near Matagorda, Texas, on 1 September. Two people drowned in Houston floods, and three crewmen died when lightning set a ship on fire in Houston during Elena's thunderstorms. Hurricane Gloria formed just off Africa on 4 September, peaked at 85 kt by satellite estimate on 13 September and threatened only shipping.

Hurricane Henri formed near Cozumel on 14 September, wandered in every compass direction without looping, peaked at 75 kt and 983 mb in the Bay of Campeche on 17 September, and weakened without reaching land. The NHC called it only the second hurricane that century to form in the Gulf of Mexico and not make landfall. Henri also disrupted efforts to stop the Ixtoc I oil spill. A subtropical storm in late October completed the count, and it briefly reached hurricane force before striking Newfoundland.