Hurricane Ophelia - September 4-17, 2005
- ️David Roth
Erratic Hurricane
Ophelia formed from an area of disturbed weather at the tail end of a
frontal
zone on the 4th over the central and northwest Bahamas. It
strengthened to a tropical
depression on the 6th near Grand Bahama Island, and a tropical storm
115 miles east of
Cape Canaveral as it drifted northward. The weak steering
currents collapsed further,
and Ophelia became a hurricane on the 7th while meandering offshore of
easr-central
Florida. On the 9th, an upper trough attempted to recurve Ophelia
into the Westerlies,
and it moved northeast just offshore the Carolinas. On the
11th, while 235 miles south
of Cape Hatteras, Ophelia began a two-day slow loop before it closed in
on North Carolina.
The eyewall moved along the coast as the center recurved just offshore,
going over Cape
Fear on the 14th, and passing south of Cape Lookout and Cape Hatteras
on the 15th.
As Ophelia stalled yet again on the 16th about 45 miles south-southeast
of Cape Hatteras,
it weakened back into a tropical storm. Finally accelerating
northeast late that day, it
brushed by Cape Cod on the 17th before moving near Nova Scotia on the
18th and
Newfoundland on the 19th as an extratropical storm. The cyclone
raced across the Atlantic
and became absorbed by a larger cyclone on the 22nd. Below is its
track, provided by the
National Hurricane Center.
The first three storm total rainfall maps below were constructed using
rain guage data provided from
NWS River Forecast Centers, with additional reports received by the local
forecast offices from their
post-tropical cyclone reports, and Environment Canada. The fourth image
used radar-derived information.
Below is a calendar showing daily rainfall from this cyclone as of 1200 UTC, or 8 a.m. EDT.
| Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
| 5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
|
| 11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
