Hurricane Elena - Meteorological History

Meteorological History

The precursor to Hurricane Elena was a tropical wave that moved off the coast of Africa on August 23. It remained weak due to its fast westward motion and Saharan Air Layer around the circulation. As it moved through the Greater Antilles, it slowed somewhat, and a tropical depression formed on August 28 between Cuba and Haiti. It paralleled the northern cost of Cuba, and became Tropical Storm Elena that night. Conditions were favorable for additional development in the Gulf of Mexico, and Elena became a hurricane on August 29.

A frontal trough of low pressure turned Elena to the northeast, but when the trough outran the storm, steering currents collapsed, leaving behind a stalled, strengthening hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. It posed a threat to the west coast of Florida, but after the crowds returned to the Mississippi and Florida panhandle coasts, it slowly looped back to the northwest and was changed to a north Gulf Coast threat, prompting another evacuation of the Mississippi Coast. Elena reached its peak of 125 mph (205 km/h) on September 1, 75 miles (121 km) south of Apalachicola, Florida while moving back to the west-northwest due to steering by a building high pressure area to its northeast.

Elena weakened steadily to a 115 mph (185 km/h) hurricane before making landfall near Biloxi, Mississippi on September 2. The hurricane weakened rapidly over land, becoming a tropical depression on September 3 with its surface circulation dissipating across Missouri. Its mid-level circulation spurred thunderstorm development as it turned eastward, dissipating by September 6 over Kentucky.