S. Florida’s history of late season hurricanes
Wilma struck 14 years ago today but ‘Yankee’ storm was the latest
Hurricane Wilma roared across South Florida on Oct. 24, 2005, entering the history books as the most damaging hurricane to hit the Sunshine State since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
Coming ashore in southwestern Florida, Wilma drew fuel from the moisture of the Everglades and stormed in through South Florida’s back door, wreaking havoc and destruction throughout the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach corridor. For hard-hit Broward County, it was the most damaging since 1950.
On the 14th anniversary of Wilma’s date with South Florida, it might seem difficult to imagine a hurricane bearing down on us this late in the year.
But it’s not the latest one we’ve had.
Dennis Feltgen, spokesperson for the Miami-based National Hurricane Center, points to Nov. 4, 1935, when an unusual hurricane came ashore just north of Miami Beach.
This was well before the modern-day system of affixing human names to hurricanes, so while it never had an official name, it came to be known by its nickname, the Yankee hurricane. This was because it had traveled to South Florida from the north in November, much like northerners heading south to avoid the cold winters of the northeast.
The so-called Yankee hurricane left about $5.5 million worth of damage in South Florida. Roofs were torn off, electrical lines
were downed, trees were toppled, and canals overflowed. About 115 people were injured and five people were killed, according to U.S. government reports from the time.
In general, hurricanes striking South Florida from late October through the official end of the hurricane season (Nov. 30) are not common.
“It is rare to have a hurricane strike Florida in very late October and November,” Feltgen said. “By that time, upper air troughs of low pressure and associated surface cold fronts make their way to the Southeast and into Florida. This would tend to keep storms well to the south and southeast of Florida.
But there have been hurricanes that hit elsewhere in Florida later in the year.
On Oct. 25, 1921 a hurricane that came to be known as the Tampa Bay Hurricane made landfall near Clearwater, killing about five people and leaving millions of dollars worth of damage. According to Phil Klotzbach, a hurricane expert and meteorologist based at Colorado State University, that was the latest in a calendar year that a major Atlantic hurricane (Category 3 strength or higher) hit the continental U.S.
On Nov. 21, 1985, Hurricane Kate made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane near Mexico Beach, Florida, a town that would be devastated almost 33 years later, on Oct. 10, 2018, by Hurricane Michael.
Kate, which holds the record as the latest hurricane in the calendar year to make a U.S. landfall, caused about $300 million worth of damage and killed about 15 people throughout the Bahamas, Cuba and Florida.
Over the decades there have also been other hurricanes that struck or brushed past South Florida in mid to late October, including three hurricanes that hit or sideswiped the Florida Keys in 1906, 1909 and 1910, killing dozens.
Feltgen warned that while hurricane activity drops off as October turns into November, tropical depressions, tropical storms and hurricanes can still form and strike land at any point.
“So,” Feltgen says, “don’t go raiding your hurricane supplies yet.”
“It is rare to have a hurricane strike Florida in very late October and November.”
Dennis Feltgen,
spokesperson for the Miami-based National Hurricane Center