On October 4, 1995 we were busy in the weather office (up on Red Mountain back then) watching Hurricane Opal slam into the Gulf coast. After languishing for days and nearly dissipating due to the ocean-cooling effect of its own rainfall, it rapidly intensified to a hurricane and began moving north across the Gulf of Mexico. It deepened to a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 150 mph and a central pressure of 916 mb (the lowest ever recorded in a hurricane that never reached Category 5 intensity), possibly due to crossing the very warm Loop Current.
During this period of rapid strengthening, a small eye formed with a diameter of only about 6 miles. The hurricane then underwent an eyewall replacement cycle, causing the pressure to rise steadily over the next few hours to 940 mb as the maximum sustained winds diminished to 125 mph. Opal weakened still to 115 mph before it's final landfall in Santa Rosa Island, Florida on October 4. Opal brought heavy surge to the area, 8-15 feet in some areas, comparing itself to Hurricane Eloise, which struck the same area at near equal strength in 1975 (I was at Fort Walton Beach for the arrival of that one
. Opal remained a hurricane for nearly 12 hours after landfall, its rapid forward speed propelling it the entire length of Alabama (the center moved from near Opp to Montgomery to Talladega to Fort Payne) before being downgraded to a tropical storm as it crossed into Tennessee near Chatanooga. Over the following 12 hours, it was not downgraded to a tropical depression until it reached Ohio, and not declared extratropical until reaching Canada, where it still managed to bring squally conditions.
Here in Alabama, thousands of trees were blown down, with the most serious damage on the eastern side of the state. At one point 2.6 million people in the state were without electricity, and an Auburn football game scheduled for Thursday night of that week has to be postponed due to the lack of water on the Auburn campus. Two people were killed near Gadsden when a large oak tree fell on their trailer. That is one big reason we always encourage people to leave mobile homes before a hurricane sweeps through our state.
During this period of rapid strengthening, a small eye formed with a diameter of only about 6 miles. The hurricane then underwent an eyewall replacement cycle, causing the pressure to rise steadily over the next few hours to 940 mb as the maximum sustained winds diminished to 125 mph. Opal weakened still to 115 mph before it's final landfall in Santa Rosa Island, Florida on October 4. Opal brought heavy surge to the area, 8-15 feet in some areas, comparing itself to Hurricane Eloise, which struck the same area at near equal strength in 1975 (I was at Fort Walton Beach for the arrival of that one
. Opal remained a hurricane for nearly 12 hours after landfall, its rapid forward speed propelling it the entire length of Alabama (the center moved from near Opp to Montgomery to Talladega to Fort Payne) before being downgraded to a tropical storm as it crossed into Tennessee near Chatanooga. Over the following 12 hours, it was not downgraded to a tropical depression until it reached Ohio, and not declared extratropical until reaching Canada, where it still managed to bring squally conditions.Here in Alabama, thousands of trees were blown down, with the most serious damage on the eastern side of the state. At one point 2.6 million people in the state were without electricity, and an Auburn football game scheduled for Thursday night of that week has to be postponed due to the lack of water on the Auburn campus. Two people were killed near Gadsden when a large oak tree fell on their trailer. That is one big reason we always encourage people to leave mobile homes before a hurricane sweeps through our state.