Meteorological History
On March 12, a cold-core stationary upper-level trough became established offshore southern Brazil. A disturbance formed along it on the 19th, and moved east-southeastward until the 22nd, when a ridge to its southeast kept it stationary. With exceptionally unusual favorable upper level winds and slightly below average, if marginally warm, water temperatures from 24 to 26 °C (75 to 79 °F), it gradually developed, resembling a subtropical storm by the 24th. Located 630 statute miles (1010 km) east-southeast of Florianópolis, it headed slowly westward, and appeared to become a tropical storm on March 25.
A compact storm, it continued westward while steadily intensifying. The structure of the storm continued to improve and due to a definite eye feature showing on satellites, the storm was determined to have become a hurricane-equivalent cyclone on March 26. A Brazilian newspaper indicated a "Furacão (hurricane) threatening Santa Catarina (the Brazilian state)." Partly because of this headline, the storm was unofficially named Catarina. It continued to encounter favorable conditions and reached a peak of 100 mph (160 km/h) estimated sustained winds on the 28th, which made the storm the equivalent of a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. Gusts peaked at around 110 mph (180 km/h). The cyclone made landfall at that intensity, hitting just north of the town of Torres (in the northeast of the extreme southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul). Catarina rapidly dissipated over land in the normal manner of a tropical cyclone.
Read more about this topic: Cyclone Catarina
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