1985 Atlantic hurricane season

A coastline under warning

The National Hurricane Center counted 11 named storms and 7 hurricanes, close to the long-term average of 10 and 6, and the site's archive gives the same totals with 3 major hurricanes and an accumulated cyclone energy of 88. What set 1985 apart was where the storms went. Six hurricanes and two tropical storms struck the continental United States, a pattern the NHC said no year since 1916 had matched. Gale warnings covered the entire coast from Brownsville, Texas, to Eastport, Maine, and every coastal state had part of its shoreline under a hurricane warning at some point.

Danny, Elena and Juan all struck Louisiana, and the NHC noted that only North Carolina in 1955 and Florida in 1964 had taken three hurricanes in one year that century. It put United States losses for the season above $4 billion, the largest on record at the time, while counting 30 deaths and crediting evacuations for the low toll. For the fourth straight year, no hurricane crossed the Caribbean Sea. A La Niña that had persisted since 1984 helped drive the activity.

Bob, Danny and Elena

Tropical Storm Ana formed southeast of Bermuda on 15 July, the archive's first tropical-stage observation, and passed near Sable Island before crossing Newfoundland. Hurricane Bob came ashore in southwest Florida as a tropical storm on 23 July, where Everglades City collected 546.1 mm of rain, then crossed the peninsula and strengthened over the Atlantic. It reached hurricane strength before its second landfall near Beaufort, South Carolina, though its central pressure never fell below 1002 mb. The NHC attributed no deaths to Bob, though other counts list five traffic deaths linked to the storm.

Hurricane Danny formed from an African wave in the western Caribbean, crossed western Cuba and reached its lowest pressure of 987 mb as it came ashore southeast of Lake Charles, Louisiana, on 15 August. Aircraft measured 40 m/s winds near the coast at landfall. The core crossed a sparsely populated area, and the NHC listed one death and damage estimates starting at $50 million.

Hurricane Elena formed over central Cuba on 28 August and entered the Gulf of Mexico, where its steering currents collapsed twice. A trough turned it toward Florida, it looped off Cedar Key, and then high pressure drove it back west-northwest. It reached 951 mb about 120 km south of Apalachicola on 1 September and came ashore near Biloxi, Mississippi, with a central pressure of 959 mb. Dauphin Island, Alabama, measured sustained winds of 47 m/s. Nearly a million people evacuated, some twice in three days, the largest evacuation on record then. The NHC attributed four deaths to Elena, none in the landfall area, and estimated losses near $1.25 billion.

Hurricane Gloria from the Outer Banks to New England

Gloria left Africa on 15 September and stayed near minimal storm strength for days as a strong ridge kept it moving west. Weakness left in the ridge by Fabian and Henri turned it northwest on 22 September. At 0120 GMT on 25 September, about 500 km north of Hispaniola, aircraft measured 919 mb, which the NHC called the lowest pressure ever measured by reconnaissance over the Atlantic Ocean. The archive places Gloria's peak one-minute wind of 125 kt that morning. A NOAA buoy east of the center later recorded a 14.3 m sea, the highest the buoy network had measured in a tropical cyclone.

Gloria had weakened by the time it crossed Hatteras Island early on 27 September with a central pressure of 942 mb. The center then raced north-northeast just offshore of the mid-Atlantic states and moved ashore on western Long Island about ten hours later. Surge tides of 1 to 2 m arrived mostly at low tide, which limited flooding, but wind on the storm's east side downed trees and cut power to hundreds of thousands of people on Long Island and in New England. The NHC attributed eight deaths to Gloria and estimated damage near $900 million in 1985 dollars; other counts give 14 deaths.

Isabel's precursor and Juan's loops

The tropical wave that later became Tropical Storm Isabel produced heavy rain, flash floods and mudslides as it crossed the eastern Caribbean, and the NHC reported 180 deaths in Puerto Rico. The storm itself formed near Hispaniola on 7 October and weakened to a depression near the time it reached the coast of north Florida and Georgia.

Hurricane Juan formed in the central Gulf of Mexico in late October after gales had already spread across the northern Gulf, which left little time to evacuate oil rigs. It looped off central Louisiana, reached its lowest pressure of 971 mb on 28 October and came ashore near Morgan City on 29 October. It then looped again near Lafayette, crossed the mouth of the Mississippi and made a second landfall as a tropical storm west of Pensacola on 31 October. Tides of 1 to 2 m persisted for five days east of the river, and Alexandria, Louisiana, recorded 406.4 mm of rain.

The NHC attributed 12 deaths to Juan, nine of them from toppled oil rigs or boats lost while carrying oil workers. Two rigs overturned in 11 to 15 m swells. Damage estimates ran as high as $1.5 billion, including losses to the oil industry, crops and livestock.

Hurricane Kate in late November

Kate formed northeast of the Virgin Islands on 15 November, became a hurricane the next day and crossed the north coast of Cuba on 19 November, emerging east of Havana. Unofficial Cuban reports cited at least 10 deaths and up to 300,000 people fleeing the coast. Over the southeastern Gulf, Kate deepened to 953 mb on 20 November, and the archive places its peak of 105 kt that day.

Shear and cooler water weakened Kate before it reached Mexico Beach, Florida, on 21 November with a central pressure of 967 mb and flight-level winds near 44 m/s. It was the fourth November hurricane that century to strike the United States, all of them in Florida. The NHC listed five deaths in the United States and damage near $300 million, excluding lost jobs in the Apalachicola oyster industry. A final depression in the Caribbean in early December ended the archive's tropical record on 9 December.