1994 Atlantic hurricane season

A season with an empty peak

Lixion Avila and colleagues at the National Hurricane Center called 1994 peculiar. Seven tropical storms formed and three became hurricanes, against the 50-year average of nine and six they cited. For the first time since track records became reliable in the mid-1940s, no hurricane occurred in September or October, and two hurricanes formed in November for only the second time in that span, after 1980. None reached Category 3, which had last happened in 1986. The site's archive agrees on 7 tropical storms, 3 hurricanes and no major hurricanes, with accumulated cyclone energy of 32.

The NHC could not pin the lull on any one factor. Shear from August to October ran below normal across much of the belt where storms usually form, yet few did. Above-normal surface pressure south of 20°N from Africa to the Caribbean and slightly cool water in the tropical northeastern Atlantic fit the quiet pattern, though the authors wrote that none of these explained it alone. El Niño held activity down; Colorado State University had expected it to fade sooner.

Alberto and Beryl in the Florida Panhandle

Tropical Storm Alberto formed near the western tip of Cuba on 30 June and came ashore near Destin, Florida, at 1500 UTC on 3 July, near its peak of 993 mb and 28 m/s, about 55 kt. Its winds faded fast, but the depression stalled over eastern Alabama and western Georgia for four days. Americus, Georgia, measured 701.3 mm of rain from 4 to 7 July, and the Flint River crested about 7.3 m above flood stage at Albany.

The floods broke two hydroelectric dams and 82 small dams. The NHC attributed 28 deaths in Georgia and 2 in Alabama directly to the flooding, some a week after landfall. The American Insurance Services Group preliminarily put Alberto's damage at $500 million in 1994 dollars, with Georgia crop losses alone at $100 million. About 20,000 people evacuated Albany.

Tropical Storm Beryl formed about 185 km south of Pensacola on 14 August and made landfall near Panama City around 0000 UTC on 16 August, with estimated sustained winds of 26 m/s. Its pressure bottomed at 999 mb just after landfall. The NHC found no direct deaths, but as Beryl's remnant crossed the Carolinas it spawned 23 confirmed tornadoes in South Carolina. Damage came to a preliminary $73 million in 1994 dollars, including $37 million from tornadoes in Lexington County.

Chris, Debby, Ernesto and a string of depressions

Hurricane Chris formed midway between Africa and the Lesser Antilles on 16 August and reached hurricane strength on 18 August despite shear from an upper low. Dvorak estimates put its peak at 979 mb on 19 August. It passed about 140 km east of Bermuda on 21 August without tropical storm winds there and caused no casualties.

Tropical Storm Debby lasted only two days in September but proved deadly. Stations on Martinique recorded 10-minute winds of 29 m/s with gusts to 44 m/s. The NHC listed four deaths in two landslides on St. Lucia, one drowning on Martinique, a fisherman lost off Puerto Rico and three deaths in the Dominican Republic, possibly after Debby had degenerated. Tropical Storm Ernesto spent its short life over the far eastern Atlantic.

Five depressions never became storms. One struck near Georgetown, South Carolina, on 20 July, the first tropical landfall there since Hurricane Hugo. Another came ashore near Tampico in late August, and dropped 16.18 inches of rain at Aldama, Tamaulipas. Three more formed in late September, one of them making landfall in Belize.

Florence and the November hurricanes

Florence grew from a low on a stationary front about 1,850 km east-southeast of Bermuda, began as a subtropical cyclone on 2 November and became a tropical storm on 4 November. It became a hurricane that day and later raced northeast between two large midlatitude storms. The NHC estimated its peak at 0000 UTC on 8 November at 49 m/s and 972 mb, adjusting satellite estimates of 39 to 46 m/s for the hurricane's fast motion; no surface observation could confirm it. The archive records Florence as the season's strongest storm at 95 kt, Category 2, one knot short of major. It never touched land.

Gordon's looping track and the Haiti floods

Gordon formed off Nicaragua on 8 November and brushed ashore near Puerto Cabezas before becoming a tropical storm on 10 November. It crossed eastern Jamaica and eastern Cuba on 13 November, took on subtropical features near the Bahamas, then reformed near the lower Florida Keys. Gordon crossed southwest Florida near Fort Myers on 16 November with sustained winds near 23 m/s, below its later peak. It became a hurricane off Florida's east coast, peaked at 980 mb around 0000 UTC on 18 November, came within about 150 km of the Outer Banks, then traced a figure eight offshore and crossed the coast near Cape Canaveral as a depression.

The deadliest effects came early, while Gordon was still a tropical storm. Southerly flow east of its broad circulation drove prolonged rain onto Haiti's steep terrain. The NHC relied on a United Nations estimate of 1,122 deaths in Haiti, the most for an Atlantic tropical cyclone since Hurricane David in 1979. Other reports listed six deaths in Costa Rica, five in the Dominican Republic, two in Jamaica and two in Cuba.

In Florida the NHC counted eight deaths directly attributable to Gordon, mostly drownings; one of them came from a tornado at Barefoot Bay in Brevard County that also injured 40 people. Power failed for 425,000 customers. Agricultural losses in Florida reached an estimated $275 million, and the NHC put total United States damage near $400 million, in 1994 dollars. Gordon's shifting track confounded the guidance models and forced warnings from Jamaica and Cuba to the Carolinas.