A viewer asked where we get the hurricane names from and, in fact, the World Meteorological Organization comes up with six lists which rotate every six years.
The names of memorable hurricanes get replaced, but smaller ones don't and so Humberto is one that has been around a while. In fact, on this day in 2007 we had OUR Humberto as you can see from the radar pic above. You probably don't remember it, but it's victims sure do!
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Humberto formed quickly in the Gulf on September 12th just off the Texas coast and was not expected to become a hurricane. But the storm intensified just as it made landfall to 80mph winds and even got stronger ON LAND (!) reaching 85mph winds. Here is the path forecast and pretty much spot on except that a CAT 1 Hurricane was never forecast (which shows you never let your guard down!):
Along with the wind, 12-14" of rain fell, flooding Port Arthur:
Sadly, one man in Bridge City, TX (near Port Arthur) died when he went outside to inspect wind damage and his carport fell on him. All told, our Humberto cost $50 million in damage and wasn't formidable enough to have the name retired. Neither will this new Humberto it doesn't look like. Thanks to Getty Images for all the pictures.
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By the way, have you seen the website Hurricane City? If you haven't, you should---Jim Williams has all the statistics about cities and hurricanes that you could want, including when--statistically speaking--any one place will be hit again by a Major Hurricane. For example, Grand Bahama was due by the end of this year and Abaco Island was overdue (Dorian took care of that, unfortunately). When is Galveston due for its next big one? Take a look at the site right here. And remember, it's only a statistic.
Have a lucky Friday 13th! Full Moon tonight!!
Frank