At 2 p.m. EDT on Thursday, August 7, 1980, powerful Hurricane Allen was located 85 miles north northeast of Cozumel, Mexico. The advisory from the National Hurricane Center said it all: ...EXTREMELY SEVERE HURRICANE ALLEN CONTINUES TO STRENGTHEN... I found a copy of the actual teletype copy of the detailed vortex data message that was transmitted from the NOAA aircraft at 12:42 pm CDT. The central pressure in the hurricane had dropped to 899 millibars! This made it the second strongest hurricane observed in the Atlantic up until that time.
It was a storm worthy of the headlines. The Houston Post screamed “Hurricane Allen roars into Gulf” in 48 point type. The Birmingham News said “Allen rivals 1935 storm in intensity.” The News also said, “’Frederic Fever’ has Mobile on edge.” Along the Alabama Gulf Coast, it had been less than a year since Hurricane Frederic roared ashore on September 12, 1979. As early as Wednesday, civil defense officials along the Alabama coast had been making preparations in case the dangerous hurricane started to come north. In Mobile, residents were stocking up on plywood, flashlights, batteries, bottled water and canned goods. On Dauphin Island, where the 3.2 mile bridge off the island was still out after Frederic, a flotilla of boats was being marshaled in case an evacuation became necessary. Officials said that an evacuation of the island's 800 permanent residents and 1,000 summer visitors by boat would take sixteen hours under ideal conditions, and conditions were already becoming less than ideal over the Gulf of Mexico. On Wednesday night, a chopper ferrying oil workers to safety off Houma, Louisiana crashed in the storm tossed Gulf. Twelve people perished.
The official forecast called for the monstrous hurricane to move west northwestward across the Gulf of Mexico, eventually to impact the Texas coast. That is what happened, with the hurricane moving inland early on Sunday the 10th.
It was a storm worthy of the headlines. The Houston Post screamed “Hurricane Allen roars into Gulf” in 48 point type. The Birmingham News said “Allen rivals 1935 storm in intensity.” The News also said, “’Frederic Fever’ has Mobile on edge.” Along the Alabama Gulf Coast, it had been less than a year since Hurricane Frederic roared ashore on September 12, 1979. As early as Wednesday, civil defense officials along the Alabama coast had been making preparations in case the dangerous hurricane started to come north. In Mobile, residents were stocking up on plywood, flashlights, batteries, bottled water and canned goods. On Dauphin Island, where the 3.2 mile bridge off the island was still out after Frederic, a flotilla of boats was being marshaled in case an evacuation became necessary. Officials said that an evacuation of the island's 800 permanent residents and 1,000 summer visitors by boat would take sixteen hours under ideal conditions, and conditions were already becoming less than ideal over the Gulf of Mexico. On Wednesday night, a chopper ferrying oil workers to safety off Houma, Louisiana crashed in the storm tossed Gulf. Twelve people perished.
The official forecast called for the monstrous hurricane to move west northwestward across the Gulf of Mexico, eventually to impact the Texas coast. That is what happened, with the hurricane moving inland early on Sunday the 10th.
on August 6, 2006, 10:25 pm
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/flt/t2/loop-avn.html
Looking very impressive....Down around where Ivan came from......All depends on the ULL coming towards it and the African Dust....But there is another low behind it that came off the coast and more on their way......
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