Hurricane Roxanne
| Category 3 hurricane ( SSHWS ) | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Emergence | October 7, 1995 | |
| resolution | October 21, 1995 | |
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Peak wind speed |
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| Lowest air pressure | 956 mbar ( hPa ; 28.2 inHg ) | |
| dead | 29 total | |
| Property damage | $ 1.5 billion (1995) | |
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Affected areas |
Several regions of Mexico , particularly the Yucatán | |
| Season overview: Atlantic hurricane season 1995 |
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Hurricane Roxanne was the seventeenth named storm, the tenth hurricane and the fifth, as well as the last major hurricane of the very active 1995 Atlantic hurricane season . Roxanne first reached the mainland near Cozumel at the peak of the hurricane, which caused around one and a half billion US dollars in damage. The hurricane then took an extremely unusual and unpredictable course through the Bahía de Campeche before finally reaching land and disintegrating. Roxanne was the first hurricane to form in an October in the western Caribbean since Hurricane Hattie in October 1961 and the first Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale (SSHWS).
Roxanne was the first storm to be assigned the letter 'R' since the naming of Atlantic hurricanes in 1950 (and the only other one besides Rita in 2005 ).
Storm course
Roxanne was formed from a tropical wave that connected with a large depression with a trough off the coast of Honduras . While this is a rather confused connection, it is not uncommon in the western Caribbean. From all these components a tropical depression formed on October 7th. Satellite imagery showed a steady intensification and at 00:00 UTC the low became Tropical Storm Roxanne. Roxanne was now a threat to the Cayman Islands and Cuba . The channel that Roxanne had steered, however, moved north and was replaced by a high pressure area . This forced Roxanne westward and as the storm moved towards the Yucatán it intensified significantly.
During the afternoon of October 10th, Roxanne became a hurricane and formed a well developed eye, and shortly thereafter was upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane. This was the first time this has happened since Hurricane Hattie during the 1961 hurricane season . Hurricane Hattie had gone through a similar phase of intensification and followed a similar course. Roxanne reached the mainland north of Tulum, a town near Cozumel , at the height of her intensity , with sustained winds of about 185 km / h. Roxanne then did not lose her hurricane strength, even though the hurricane stayed over land for a day and a half.
Roxanne came back over the water in the Bahía de Campeche as a minimal hurricane . Roxanne soon weakened to a tropical storm and turned northwest. As soon as the circulation was completely afloat, Roxanne reached hurricane strength again. The steering currents over the southern Gulf of Mexico were weak and Roxanne drifted southeast, threatening the Yucatán again before heading northwest again. Roxanne weakened steadily, turned south and finally dissolved over the Bahía de Campech.
Storm warnings
Roxanne's very atypical course over the western Caribbean and southern Gulf of Mexico resulted in a series of storm warnings. A hurricane warning was issued 23 hours before the hurricane hit the mainland. When Roxanne entered the Gulf of Mexico, storm readiness and warnings were issued, suspended and renewed almost continuously, over a period of almost ten days, during which the storm wandered on its wrong track in the Bahía de Campech.
Effects
Roxanne caused 14 deaths, five of them from the sinking of an oil rig with 245 people on board. The property damage was great in various Mexican states. Over 40,000 homes were destroyed in the states of Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Veracruz and Yucatán. The crops were destroyed and cattle drowned. Roads were washed away and blocked by landslides. The road between Carmen and Campeche was completely destroyed. There are also unconfirmed reports that hotel lobbies in Cancun and Cozumel have been damaged by waves. Rain and the storm surge caused the heaviest floods in Campeche since 1927 with the overflowing rivers. The highest recorded amount of precipitation was 676 mm in Silvituc / Champoton. The storm surge affected the Mexican coastline for days and the sea water flooded hundreds of meters inland.
Roxanne was in an area that had been directly hit by Hurricane Opal just a few weeks earlier and the damage it caused could not be clearly identified. The total damage was estimated at about $ 1.5 billion.
Deletion
Because of the great damage that Roxanne did in Mexico, the name was removed from the list of tropical cyclone names by the World Meteorological Organization in the spring of 1996 and will never be used again for an Atlantic hurricane. The name was replaced by Rebekah in the 2001 hurricane season .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Lixion A. Avila: Hurricane Roxanne Preliminary Report . National Hurricane Center. 11/29/1995. Retrieved February 17, 2007.
