Ophelia

History

Ophelia was an unusually long-lived and erratic tropical cyclone that spent most of September 2005 wandering off the eastern United States. It grew out of a sprawling trough left behind by a cold front that had moved offshore on 1 September. By 4 September two low-pressure centres had taken shape along the trough, one of which — situated near the Bahamas — was designated Tropical Depression Sixteen at about 06:00 UTC on 6 September, between Andros and Grand Bahama. Caught between two lobes of the subtropical ridge with almost no steering flow, the system looped and meandered northward. It was named Ophelia on 7 September, roughly 185 km east-southeast of Cape Canaveral, and first reached hurricane intensity late on 8 September.

For the following week Ophelia repeatedly strengthened and weakened, oscillating between tropical storm and hurricane status as dry air, wind shear and the upwelling of cool water beneath its slow-moving centre took turns undermining it. Its lowest central pressure, 976 hPa, was recorded on 10 September, while peak winds of about 140 km/h came on 14 September as it approached North Carolina. The centre never came ashore; instead the eyewall brushed the coastline for around two days before the storm turned away. Ophelia weakened to a tropical storm on 16 September, became extratropical the next day, and finally dissipated over the Norwegian Sea on 23 September after crossing Atlantic Canada.

Warnings covered a broad stretch of the Eastern Seaboard, and more than 2,000 people sheltered. North Carolina bore the brunt: over 240,000 customers lost power, more than 1,500 homes were damaged, parts of the Outer Banks recorded over 380 mm of rain, beaches eroded badly, and losses reached about US$70 million. Three deaths were attributed to the storm, with another person missing.

Sources: Bureau of Meteorology report Wikipedia