Hurricane Fern (1971) - Meteorological History

Meteorological History

A northwestward moving tropical wave moved out the Caribbean Sea on September 1 and became a tropical depression on September 2 after crossing southern Florida. Still moving northwestward, the tropical depression made landfall in southeastern Louisiana on September 4. A building high pressure system over the Central United States forced the tropical depression to move northwest over the Gulf of Mexico. The warm waters then cause the depression to reach tropical storm strength and the storm was given the name Fern by the National Hurricane Center on September 7.

The following day, Fern reached hurricane status as it neared the Texas coastline. The hurricane reached a peak intensity of 90 mph (140 km/h) and its barometric pressure dropped to 979 millibars. An incoming mid-latitude trough caused Fern to stall east of Texas for twelve hours. After the trough moved by, Fern turned southwest, paralleling the Texas coastline before making landfall on September 10 between Freeport and Matagorda.

At landfall, Fern had weakened to a strong tropical storm as it moved further inland. Because the center of Fern was elongated, it was still able to receive moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and as a result, weakening was slow. Between September 10 and September 11, Fern bypassed Corpus Christi, Texas before dissipating as a tropical depression after crossing the Rio Grande River into northern Mexico.