Six Year Anniversary Of Hurricane Charley

Not only is today Friday the 13th, it is also the 6 year anniversary of Hurricane Charley making landfall in Punta Gorda, Florida. I have an analysis of Charley that I wrote for my new site, but since it's not online yet, I can't link to it. I've copied it here.


Charley was the third named storm of the Atlantic Hurricane Season in 2004, becoming the strongest hurricane at the time to make landfall in the United States.

Charley started out as a tropical wave that formed off Africa on August 4th. 2004. After moving across Cuba on the 13th and causing four deaths there, Charley rapidly accelerated and turned towards the northeast on a collision course for southwest Florida. Sometime around 3:45 p.m. the hurricane made landfall in Cayo Costa, Florida with maximum sustained winds at 150 miles per hour.

About an hour later, Charley moved into Punta Gorda, with winds measured at 145 miles per hour. Passing directly over Orlando between 8:20 and 9:40 p.m. on the 13th, Charley still had winds at 85 miles per hour, with gusts up to 106 miles per hour recorded at Orlando International Airport. Charley reemerged into the Atlantic ocean near Daytona Beach as a Category 1 hurricane and restrengthened slightly when it reached warmer water. Continuing to move rapidly to the north-northeast, Charley again made landfall near Cape Romain, South Carolina as an 80 mph hurricane, after which it moved offshore briefly, and made its final landfall near North Myrtle Beach as a minimal hurricane, with winds of 75 mph.

Charley then began interacting with an approaching frontal boundary, becoming a tropical storm over southeastern South Carolina. After moving back into the Atlantic Ocean near Virginia Beach on August 15, Charley became extratropical and became embedded in the frontal zone. As an extratropical storm, Charley continued to move rapidly to the northeast, and was completely absorbed by the front shortly after sunrise on August 15, near southeastern Massachusetts.

Here are some interesting facts about Charley:

Property damage was estimated at $5.4 billion dollars (2004 USD), and approximately $285 million dollars (2004 USD) in agricultural damage.

Charley produced a storm tide that was unofficially measured to up to 7.19 ft. in Myrtle Beach.

Hurricane Charley was the 19th strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall in the United States.

The unofficial storm tide (storm surge plus the tide) was estimated to be 6.5 ft. at the barrier islands near Punta Gorda.

Here is a radar loop of Hurricane Charley's trek through Florida. To quote Dan Noah, WCM at NWS Tampa, "Hurricane Charley acted like a ten mile wide F2 tornado".