Summit County Citizens Voice

asasdf

Tropical Storm Nadine, the fifth-longest-lived storm on record in the Atlantic Basin. Map courtesy Supportstorm.

Hurricane Nadine spins over the open waters of the Atlantic on Oct. 2, 2012. Satellite photo courtesy NASA.

Only four other storms have survived longer during the observed era

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Most tropical weather systems make the news when they get really big and threaten coastal areas, but Tropical Storm Nadine, spinning near the Azores, will enter the record books as one of the longest-lived storms in the Atlantic Basin on record.

Nadine has been at tropical or subtropical strength for 21 days. Only four other storms have lasted longer, most recently Kyle, in 2002, which managed to survive for 22 days after forming near Bermuda, looping around for a while, and then cruising up the southeastern seaboard, where tornadoes spawned by storm caused significant damage.

The longest-lasting storm on record was in the pre-name era and is now referred to as the San Ciriaco Hurricane of 1899. That storm persisted for 28 days after forming as a Cape Verde system off the coast of Africa. The San Ciriaco storm raked the Caribbean islands and caused significant flooding and more than 3,000 deaths in Puerto Rico and other islands before it turned north, skirting the U.S. coast, and then turning back out to sea.

Nadine developed well east of Africa from a tropical wave, headed east into the middle of the Atlantic and then veered north toward the Azores, where it lost strength and was downgraded to a post-tropical system. It regained strength a few days later and spent several more days as a hurricane-force storm, continuing to loop around the southeastern Atlantic.

Nadine is not likely to move much higher up the list of long-lived storms. The National Hurricane Center is forecasting that the storm will encounter strong wind shear and lose its tropical characteristics in the next 24 hours, ultimately being absorbed by a low pressure trough approaching from the west.

The list of long-live storms, courtesy Dr. Jeff Masters and the Weather Underground blog.

1) San Ciriaco Hurricane of 1899: 28 days
2) Ginger, 1971: 27.25 days
3) Inga, 1969: 24.75 days
4) Kyle, 2002: 22 days
5) Nadine, 2012: 21 days
5) Hurricane Four, 1926: 21 days

Filed under: climate and weather, tropical storms and hurricanes, Weatherblog Tagged: | 2000 Atlantic hurricane season, 2012 Hurricane season, Atlantic hurricanes, Hurricane Nadine, National Hurricane Center, Tropical cyclone, Tropical Storm Nadine