Hurricane Audrey - Meteorological History

Meteorological History

A tropical wave moved across the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea where it became a tropical depression on June 25. The depression stalled in the Gulf of Mexico where it showed signs of rapid intensification. At 1800 UTC, the tropical depression became Hurricane Audrey. The fledgling storm was centered 380 miles (612 km) southeast of Brownsville, Texas. By June 26, the storm was already at Category 2 strength as it moved northeastward at 5 mph (8 km/h). Later, the storm's forward motion increased to 15 mph (24 km/h) as Audrey continued its north-northeasterly track. Hurricane Audrey then attained its peak maximum sustained winds of 145 mph (230 km/h) and an estimated pressure of 946 millibars (27.9 inHg) before making landfall near the Texas/Louisiana border on June 27. After landfall, Audrey quickly weakened to a tropical storm as it moved over inland Louisiana. Audrey then transformed into a powerful extratropical storm as it crossed over Tennessee. The extratropical remnants of Audrey then merged with another low over the Ohio Valley. The extratropical storm then reached a low barometric pressure of 974 millibars (28.8 inHg) as it moved across southeastern Canada and was unidentifiable by June 29. No one knows how strong the hurricane really was. Some of the Audrey victims told reporters that winds in Audrey were of Category 5 hurricane intensity. The wind gauge broke at 180 miles per hour (290 km/h) at KPLC weather station in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The victims had no warning of the hurricane. They were told the storm was going to make landfall in 4 days, but Audrey picked up speed, and the very powerful hurricane hit that night instead.