1993 Storm of The Century - Meteorological History

Meteorological History

During March 11 and 12, temperatures over much of the eastern United States began to fall quickly as an arctic high pressure system built into the Midwest and Great Plains. The extratropical area of low pressure formed in Mexico and moved eastward into the Gulf of Mexico along a stationary front, which developed thunderstorm activity near its center. A strong shortwave trough in the southern branch of the polar jet stream accelerated the strengthening of the surface low. As the area of low pressure moved through the central Gulf of Mexico, a shortwave trough in the northern branch of the jet stream phased with the system in the southern stream, which continued significant strengthening of the surface low. A squall line developed along the system's cold front, which moved rapidly across the eastern Gulf of Mexico through Florida and Cuba. The cyclone's center moved into northwest Florida by early on the morning of March 13, taking a significant storm surge into the northwestern Florida peninsula, which drowned several people.

Barometric pressures recorded during the storm were quite low: readings of 976.0 millibars (28.82 inHg) were recorded in Tallahassee, Florida and lower readings of 960.0 millibars (28.35 inHg) were observed in New England. Usually, such low readings near the coast of the Gulf of Mexico are observed only in hurricanes of Category 2 intensity on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, or within cyclonic storms out to sea. As this happened snow began to spread over the eastern United States, and a large squall line moved from over the Gulf of Mexico into Florida and Cuba. The low tracked up the east coast during the day on Saturday and into Canada by early Monday morning. In the storm's wake, cold temperatures for so late in the winter overspread the Southeast for a day or two.