17 days and counting…

Leslie! I don’t know about you – but I’m done with Leslie.

I always tell people that I love my job because the weather changes every day. For the most part it does – but what about Leslie? I tracked and talked about the same system for more than two weeks.

A co-worker who is also a closet meteorologist (there are many out there) asked what the record was for the longest-lived Atlantic storm ever tracked. Great question! Off I went to the NOAA climate site.

While Leslie had been hanging around like a houseguest who overstayed his welcome, he is not about to enter the record books.

The San Ciriaco hurricane, also known as the 1899 Puerto Rico Hurricane was the longest-lived Atlantic hurricane on record. The storm earned its name by striking Puerto Rico on Saint Ciriaco’s Day and killing hundreds on the island.

Ciriaco came early; it was the third tropical cyclone and first major hurricane of the season. The storm was first observed southwest of Cape Verde on Aug. 3, 1899. It reached hurricane status on Aug. 5. Ciriaco peaked as a category 4 before crossing the Leeward Islands on Aug. 7. The storm made landfall in Guayama, Puerto Rico with 220-km/h winds on the Aug. 8; it then emerged into the southwestern Atlantic as a category 3 hurricane. The system tracked off the north coast of Dominican Republic and crossed the Bahamas. On Aug. 14, it was centred east of Florida and started heading northward. By Aug. 17, it turned back to the northwest and made landfall near Hatteras, North Carolina. The next day, the storm re-emerged into the Atlantic. By late on Aug. 20, the storm began losing tropical characteristics and transitioned into an extratropical cyclone on Aug. 22, 525 km south of Sable Island, N.S.

But wait… there’s more: after four days, the system re-intensified to a tropical storm. Between Aug. 26 and Sept. 1, the storm just sat there. On Sept. 2, Ciriaco began gaining strength again. Early on the following day, the storm was once again a category 1 hurricane. It curved northeastward and passed through the Azores on Sept. 3, shortly before transitioning into an extratropical cyclone.

Ciriaco lasted 36 days, and its last gasps of wind reached all the way to coastal France.

I guess Leslie is just a lightweight.

As seen here, Thursday Sept. 27 Leslie was a tightly wound post tropical cyclone. On Oct. 4, Leslie was a category 1 hurricane.