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Hurricane
Katrina - Storm History
Hurricane Katrina formed as Tropical Depression
Twelve over the southeastern Bahamas on August 23, 2005
as the result of an interaction of a tropical wave and
the remains of Tropical Depression Ten. The system was
upgraded to tropical storm status on the morning of August
24 and at this point, the storm was given the name Katrina.
The tropical storm continued to move towards Florida,
and became a hurricane only two hours before it made landfall
between Hallandale Beach and Aventura, Florida on the
morning of August 25. The storm weakened over land, but
it regained hurricane status about one hour after entering
the Gulf of Mexico.[1]
The storm rapidly intensified
after entering the Gulf, partly because of the storm's
movement over the warm waters of the Loop Current.[4]
On August 27, the storm reached Category 3 intensity on
the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, becoming the third
major hurricane of the season. An eyewall replacement
cycle disrupted the intensification, but caused the storm
to nearly double in size. Katrina again rapidly intensified,
attaining Category 5 status on the morning of August 28
and reached its peak strength at 1:00 p.m. CDT that day,
with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph (280 km/h) and
a minimum central pressure of 902 mbar. The pressure measurement
made Katrina the fourth most intense Atlantic hurricane
on record at the time, only to be surpassed by Hurricanes
Rita and Wilma later in the season; it was also the strongest
hurricane ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico at the time
(a record also later broken by Rita).[1]
Katrina made its second
landfall at 6:10 a.m. CDT[1] on August 29 as a Category
3 hurricane with sustained winds of 125 mph (205 km/h)
near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana. At landfall, hurricane-force
winds extended outward 120 miles (190 km) from the center
and the storm's central pressure was 920 mbar. After moving
over southeastern Louisiana and Breton Sound, it made
its third landfall near the Louisiana/Mississippi border
with 120 mph (195 km/h) sustained winds, still at Category
3 intensity.[1]
Katrina maintained strength
well into Mississippi, finally losing hurricane strength
more than 150 miles (240 km) inland near Meridian, Mississippi.
It was downgraded to a tropical depression near Clarksville,
Tennessee, but its remnants were last distinguishable
in the eastern Great Lakes region on August 31, when it
was absorbed by a frontal boundary. The resulting extratropical
storm moved rapidly to the northeast and affected Ontario
and Quebec.[1]
Hurricane Katrina Storm History
From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
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