1983 Atlantic hurricane season

The fewest storms since 1930

The National Hurricane Center called 1983 the least active season since 1930, with four named storms and just five hurricane days, against a 1948 to 1977 average of 26. The site's archive agrees on 4 tropical storms and 3 hurricanes and puts accumulated cyclone energy at 17.4. That total ranks among the lowest on record, and 1983 stands as the least active season of the satellite era.

The NHC listed two records. For the first time since 1871, no tropical storm or hurricane formed south of 25°N, and 1982 and 1983 became the first consecutive years since 1871 without a storm in the Caribbean. Nearly 60 trackable disturbances left Africa, so the center ruled out a lack of seedlings. It blamed vertical wind shear over the western tropical Atlantic and Caribbean from mid-August to mid-September, noting that all four named storms formed where shear was weakest.

The decaying 1982 to 1983 El Niño may have contributed. Colorado State University had forecast eight tropical storms and five hurricanes in late July and later said the El Niño lasted longer and ran stronger than it had expected.

Hurricane Alicia at Galveston and Houston

Two depressions formed near the Lesser Antilles in late July, and shear stripped both of convection before they reached storm strength. The first named storm did not appear until 15 August, when a small low off the western end of a frontal trough in the northern Gulf of Mexico became Tropical Storm Alicia. With high pressure around it, Alicia stayed small and produced stronger winds than its central pressure suggested. It drifted west, then turned toward Texas under an upper anticyclone over water warmer than 29°C, deepening at about 1 mb per hour for 40 hours before landfall.

The archive places Alicia's peak of 100 kt at 06 UTC on 18 August. The center crossed the coast about 40 km southwest of Galveston at 0800 GMT that day as a minimal Category 3 hurricane, and a NOAA aircraft measured 962 mb soon after. Hobby Airport, southeast of Houston, recorded sustained winds of 42 m/s and a gust of 48 m/s. Storm tides reached nearly 4 m near San Luis Pass and more than 3 m in upper Galveston Bay near Baytown.

Alicia was the first hurricane to strike the continental United States since Allen in August 1980, ending a gap of three years and eight days, the longest since 1886. The NHC estimated 21 deaths, 3,094 injuries and total damage of nearly $2 billion in 1983 dollars, then the costliest hurricane in Texas history. Red Cross figures in the report count 1,209 houses, 633 apartments or condominiums and 455 mobile homes destroyed. Later estimates raise the damage to $3 billion in 1983 dollars, and the World Meteorological Organization retired the name in 1984.

Alicia was the first hurricane for which the NHC issued numeric landfall probabilities. The first went out about 60 hours before landfall, and Galveston carried the highest probability throughout, peaking at 51 percent in the last issue 18 to 24 hours ahead.

Barry, Chantal and Dean

Hurricane Barry was the season's only named storm born from an African disturbance. It formed east of the northern Bahamas on 23 August, weakened to a depression under strong upper winds before reaching Florida south of Melbourne on 25 August, then regained strength over the central Gulf. It reached hurricane strength just before landfall on 28 August, 55 km south of Brownsville on the Mexican coast, where Air Force reconnaissance measured 986 mb and 36 m/s winds. The NHC called damage in Florida and Texas minimal.

Hurricane Chantal formed south of Bermuda on 10 September, passed within 160 km of the island with little effect and reached minimal hurricane strength the next day before a frontal system absorbed it on 14 September. Tropical Storm Dean grew from a stalled frontal band east of Florida. A strong high over the northeastern United States spread gales more than 325 km from its center, and Dean came ashore on Virginia's eastern shore on 30 September, causing minor beach erosion and flooding. The archive's last tropical-stage observation of the year falls the same day.