Posted on 09/02/2008 10:48:10 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
With the recent formations of Hurricane Gustav and Tropical Storm Fay in the Caribbean, many people are probably thinking that South Florida is not a great place to be during hurricane season. To the contrary, South Florida (counties ofDade, Broward, and Palm Beach) actually gets hit by very few major hurricanes.
First let us look at the statistics. From 1926 when the Category 4 Miami Hurricane hit and destroyed the Florida land boom (humorously portrayed in the Marx Brothers film, "The Cocoanuts") until over twenty years later when the 1947 Fort Lauderdale Hurricane landed, there were no major hurricanes in South Florida. That's a full generation with no large hurricanes. Fourteen years after the Fort Lauderdale Hurricane, Hurricane Cleo landed near Miami but that was the last major hurricane in the area until 28 years later when Hurricane Andrew roared into Homestead in 1992 as a Category 5. A person could have been born, raised, and had children in South Florida in the time gap between those latter two hurricanes.
After Hurricane Andrew, no major hurricane made landfall in South Florida for 13 years until the infamous Katrina in 2005. However, both Katrina and Andrew were unusual in that these hurricanes formed as tropical depressions in the eastern Bahamas area. Most hurricanes form off the African coast in the area of the Cape Verde islands and track east through the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico before making landfall in either Mexico or the United States. And because of this, South Florida is usually protected from any direct hits due to the Greater Antilles Hurricane Barrier.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
FYI
South Florida PING!
I think they left out the Category 4 Hurricane of 1928 that came ashore in West Palm Beach and killed 2500+ when Lake Okeechobee emptied out.
FYI
What about the 1935 hurricane that devastated the Florida Keys? Did the effects from that not reach up into Dade and Broward because the track was too far south?
}:-)4
South Florida meaning counties of Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach. Most of the Keys are Monroe county.
Seriously. I won't be giving these asshats, pings.
Whoops! Okay, shave two years off the time from 1926 until 1947 with no major hurricane in South Florida. 19 years instead of 21. Still a considerable time with no major hurricanes.
The article is certainly welcomed. But the Antilles is not the only barrier which protects Florida. The Bahama Islands also serves as a barrier, and has forced many storms to remain off shore out in the Atlantic and away from the Florida mainland also. Or, it has served to protect Florida from direct hits. Such storms generally move north and make land fall along other the East Coast states, from Georgia to Virginia. Neither barrier, however, I don’t think, can be documented to where anyone can say that Florida is protected other than just to point out the lay of the land. Following storm tracks over the years, it just seems that way. I wouldn’t place bets on this becoming acceptable scientific practice, however.
When the insurance companies start believing Florida is “protected”, I will, too.
HEY! That is an article by my old nemisis, Brad Kava. I wrote a satire about him years ago when he was at the San Jose Mercury News. As a result, he became a laughingstock in his newsroom and he got ticked off at me bigtime.
This re-enforces with historical data something I have intuited over my 40 years in So. Fla. I picture it as one of those 'cow catcher' things on the old steam locomotives brushing away approaching storms. I'm also intrigued by those cookie cutter 'bites' such as the semi-circular coastline extending over the juncture of Fla. Georgia and into So. Carolina where I've seen Huricanes make landfall year after year. Our SE US coastline has definitely been shaped by the scouring action of untold Hurricanes.
Katrina was not a major hurricane during its Florida landfall. I don't know if you consider Punta Gorda to be South Florida, but Cat 4 Charlie hit there in 2004.
Opposite coast from South Florida.
Let's see if I get this straight...Sarah Palin's daughter's boyfriend claims to be a redneck, and was ticketed for catching salmon out of season.
And this is supposed to reflect on Palin's leadership capability? The left is grasping at straws.....
Right now Ivan making a beeline in this general direction. Tracking map shows it veering a bit to the south of us but too close for comfort.
Oops! I mean Ike, not Ivan.
No surprise all the storm names start to run together. Ike forecast for Sunday places the storm exactly where Hanna has been for the past two days.
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