1982 Atlantic hurricane season

The quietest season in half a century

The National Hurricane Center counted five named tropical storms and one subtropical storm in 1982, with two hurricanes that spent a combined six days at hurricane strength. On that basis it called 1982 the least active season in more than 50 years. The last year with only two hurricanes was 1931, and the 35-year average stood at ten named storms and six hurricanes. The site's count of 6 tropical storms includes the June subtropical storm, because the archive counts any storm that reached 34 kt, subtropical or tropical. Accumulated cyclone energy came to 31.5 in the archive.

The NHC blamed unseasonable westerly winds in the upper atmosphere, which persisted over the tropical Atlantic through most of August and September and sheared developing systems apart. Above-normal surface pressure over the North Atlantic also kept disturbances at low latitudes, and many crossed the southern Caribbean into the eastern Pacific. A very strong El Niño that continued into 1983 drove the shear, and heavy African dust may also have suppressed activity.

No hurricane struck the continental United States in 1981 or 1982. The NHC noted this was only the second time that century that two consecutive years had passed without one.

Alberto and a June subtropical storm

Hurricane Alberto formed in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico on 2 June, the archive's first tropical-stage observation of the year. A NOAA aircraft found 38 m/s winds and 985 mb the next afternoon, and the archive gives Alberto a peak of 75 kt. It stayed a hurricane for only about 12 hours before a high-level westerly jet destroyed its outflow, and it drifted in the southeastern Gulf until it dissipated on 6 June. Mandatory evacuations sent more than 1,000 people in southwest Florida to shelters.

Florida saw gales and heavy rain in the lower Keys but only minor damage. Western Cuba took the worst of it: the NHC recorded 23 deaths from flash floods there. In Cuba rain peaked at 39.84 inches and more than 50,000 people evacuated.

A second disturbance followed a similar path over Yucatán in mid-June but met an upper trough and became a subtropical storm that crossed northern Florida on 18 June. The NHC listed three deaths in central Florida from severe thunderstorms, tornadoes and heavy rain, and put damage at $10 million in 1982 dollars. The storm spawned 12 tornadoes in the state. The storm's forecast track also forced organizers to postpone the Newport to Bermuda sailboat race for two days.

Twelve quiet weeks, then Beryl and Chris

No tropical disturbance developed into a storm for 12 weeks after the June subtropical storm. Tropical Storm Beryl finally formed south of the Cape Verde Islands on 28 August and passed just south of them the next day. Upper westerlies sheared off its deep convection in the central Atlantic, and the circulation had vanished by the time it approached the Leeward Islands on 6 September. Cape Verde reported at least three deaths and 122 injuries.

Tropical Storm Chris developed from a non-tropical low over the northern Gulf of Mexico and came ashore near the Texas and Louisiana border on 11 September at its peak of about 28 m/s. Tides reached near 2 m in southwestern Louisiana and rain totals up to 250 mm in the west of the state. The NHC put damage at less than $2 million.

Hurricane Debby between Bermuda and Newfoundland

Debby formed north of the Dominican Republic on 13 September, in the only part of the Atlantic where light shear allowed development that month. Its precursor dropped 12.86 inches of rain on Puerto Rico and caused one death there. Debby became a hurricane on 14 September and passed about 130 km west of Bermuda two days later, where gusts reached 30 m/s and damage was minor.

After stalling, Debby deepened again as a trough pulled it northeast. The archive places its peak of 115 kt and 950 mb on 18 September, making it the season's only major hurricane. It passed just southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland, that evening, bringing gusts of 19 m/s and heavy rain, then raced toward Europe and merged with a storm over the British Isles on 20 September.

Debby was also a forecasting test. NOAA's Hurricane Research Division flew two WP-3 aircraft that released OMEGA dropwindsondes up to 1,500 km from the center, while a new geostationary sounder supplied temperature profiles over the ocean. With those data, forecasters could see on 14 September that the trough had captured Debby and would carry it away from the mainland. NOAA later credited the dropsonde flights with improving track accuracy by about 15 percent.

Tropical Storm Ernesto formed midway between Bermuda and Puerto Rico on 30 September, peaked at 60 kt the next day and merged with a frontal low on 2 October, the archive's last tropical-stage observation of the year.