Weather Wonder Wednesday: Hurricane Donna and Gilbert

Another new segment that was just started today is Weather Wonder Wednesday where every Wednesday a little bit of facts and history will be told about that day.  September 12 holds a lot of weather history esp. with hurricanes and typhoons.  On this day, there has been an astounding number of 8 tropical systems who hold a memorable past.  One of the most memorable hurricanes that affected the United States was Hurricane Donna.


No, no, not Donna Summers.  Although, Hurricane Donna was a bad girl because she caused devastation across the entire East Coast.  Hurricane Donna will be forever known for two reasons.  One reason is that Hurricane Donna holds the record of retaining major hurricane status (category 3 or higher) for the longest period in the Atlantic Basin.  It maintained winds of 115 MPH or greater for 9 days.  The other reason why Hurricane Donna will forever be known is because it was the first hurricane to affect every point on the East Coast from Key West, FL to Caribou, ME.  Here is the track of Donna to show you its damaging path.
  

The next hurricane that made a huge impression on this day in history was Hurricane Gilbert.  Hurricane Gilbert held the record for the strongest hurricane in the Atlantic Basin from 1988 to 2005 when Hurricane Wilma surpassed it.  Gilbert went from 960 mb to 888 mb within 24 hours.  That's a 72 millibar pressure drop within a 24 hour period which estimates to be a 3 mb decrease per hour.  Now that's a bomb!  That's a bigger bomb drop than what Gilbert Gottfried's jokes on 9/11 and the Japan tsunami had on people shortly after the events happened.  Nonetheless, Gilbert Gottfried maintains a good comedic status and Hurricane Gilbert produced a maximum sustained winds of an amazing 185 MPH.

There is one other storm that holds a significant impact to the U.S., but not as recognized as the previous two, and that is Hurricane Frederick.  Frederick hit Dauphin Island, AL on this day 33 years ago with max sustained winds of 125 MPH causing tremendous damage and some casualties.  One of the largest and most significant structures it demolished that citizens of Dauphin Island will never forget was the Dauphin Island Bridge.


Residents of Dauphin Island and Mobile County, AL couldn't find words to describe this when they say it and learned that Dauphin Island residents were trapped, except by boat.

Hurricane Donna, Gilbert, and Frederick have all been retired to never be used again.