Hurricane Celia - Meteorological History

Meteorological History

The precursor to Hurricane Celia was a tropical wave that moved off the eastern African coast on July 23. The wave moved quickly at 20 mph (32 km/h) to 25 mph (40 km/h) with no development. The wave entered into the eastern Caribbean Sea on July 28 and began to show signs of development. Pressures over the Southern United States were falling at that time, eroding the subtropical ridge. This allowed the storm to develop a closed circulation and the wave was declared a tropical disturbance on July 29. The disturbance was declared Tropical Depression Three the next day. Tropical Depression Three crossed over western Cuba that night. A reconnaissance flight found that the depression had a pressure of 1007 mbar at the time but they could not finish the mission due to the proximity to Cuba. The storm entered the Gulf of Mexico late on July 31 and began to feed off the warm waters. On the morning of August 1, another reconnaissance flight found winds of tropical storm intensity and the depression was upgraded to Tropical Storm Celia.

Satellite loops of Celia showed that the storm was becoming more organized throughout the day. A reconnaissance mission in the afternoon confirmed the intensification, and Celia was upgraded to a major hurricane with winds of 115 mph (185 km/h) and a pressure of 965 mbar (hPa; 28.49 inHg). The rapid intensification was brief and Celia weakened to a category one the next morning. The storm moved in a steady west north-west motion since it entered the gulf, and several reconnaissance missions flew into the storm to provide forecasters with valuable data. The forecast errors at that time were some of the lowest in several years; they were 38.4 mi (61.8 km) and 64 mi (103 km) for 12 and 24 hours, respectively compared to the long term mean of over 100 mi (160 km). As Celia neared the Texas coastline, another round of rapid deepening occurred. The pressure dropped 39 mbar in 15 hours and the winds increased to 125 mph (201 km/h), just short of category four status.

The intensification was unexpected as conditions were not in favor of rapid development. After moving inland, Celia maintained tropical storm intensity for 30 hours before dissipating over western Texas on August 5. The slow dissipation was unusual since Celia was a relatively small storm, and such storms usually break apart after shortly landfall. Celia was an unusual hurricane in that most of the damage was caused by sudden and severe wind gusts on the left side of the storm. Sustained winds were never higher than 120 mph (190 km/h) to 130 mph (210 km/h) but gusts locally reached 160 mph (260 km/h) or more. The gusts were in streaks and only lasted for 15 minutes.