The 1996 Atlantic hurricane season was the first Atlantic hurricane season since 1965 in which every tropical cyclone attained tropical storm intensity. Producing a total of thirteen named storms, nine hurricanes, and six major hurricanes, the season officially began on June 1, 1996, and ended on November 30, 1996, dates which conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin. The season's first tropical cyclone, Tropical Storm Arthur, developed on June 17, while the final cyclone, Hurricane Marco dissipated on November 24. The most intense hurricane, Edouard, was a powerful Cape Verde-type hurricane that affected portions of the Mid-Atlantic states and New England. The season featured four tropical cyclone landfalls, including two hurricanes, one of which was a major hurricane. In total, six major hurricanes formed during the 1996 Atlantic hurricane season—the highest number produced in a single season since 1961.
There were four notable hurricanes during the 1996 Atlantic hurricane season: Bertha, Cesar, Fran, and Hortense. Hurricane Bertha made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane on the coast of North Carolina, causing a total of nine deaths and $335 million (1996 USD); Hurricane Fran made landfall in the same general area a little over a month later as a Category 3 hurricane, causing twenty-eight total deaths and $3.2 billion in damage. Hurricane Cesar developed in the east Caribbean during late-July and crossed Nicaragua into the east Pacific as a strong tropical storm several days later, at which time it earned the name Douglas. The system produced severe wind and flooding damage, leading to 122 total deaths and $253 million in damage. Finally, Hurricane Hortense formed in the east Atlantic during the month of September, and crossed Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, causing 39 direct deaths and $158 million in damage. Due to their severe damage, the names Cesar, Fran, and Hortense were retired by the World Meteorological Organization.
Read more about 1996 Atlantic Hurricane Season: Storms, Storm Names, Season Effects
Famous quotes containing the words atlantic, hurricane and/or season:
“In clear weather the laziest may look across the Bay as far as Plymouth at a glance, or over the Atlantic as far as human vision reaches, merely raising his eyelids; or if he is too lazy to look after all, he can hardly help hearing the ceaseless dash and roar of the breakers. The restless ocean may at any moment cast up a whale or a wrecked vessel at your feet. All the reporters in the world, the most rapid stenographers, could not report the news it brings.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Staid middle age loves the hurricane passions of opera.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Much poetry seems to be aware of its situation in time and of its relation to the metronome, the clock, and the calendar. ... The season or month is there to be felt; the day is there to be seized. Poems beginning “When” are much more numerous than those beginning “Where” of “If.” As the meter is running, the recurrent message tapped out by the passing of measured time is mortality.”
—William Harmon (b. 1938)