Meteorological History
Gloria began as a tropical wave that moved off the coast of Africa on September 15. It moved westward through the favorable tropical Atlantic Ocean, and organized into a tropical depression the next day while south of Cape Verde. Tracking steadily west-northwestward due to the strong subtropical ridge, the depression continued to strengthen and became Tropical Storm Gloria on the 17th. Conditions for tropical development deteriorated, causing Gloria to weaken to a tropical depression on the 18th. After it crossed 45°W on the 20th, the system was able to restrengthen to a tropical storm, and steadily intensified as it approached the Lesser Antilles. While 620 miles (1000 km) east-southeast of St. Croix, Gloria attained hurricane status.
Moving westward, Gloria threatened much of the Leeward Islands, prompting islands' respective governments to issue Hurricane Warnings in anticipation of the storm. A turn to the west-northwest occurred on September 22, and the hurricane passed 155 miles (250 km) to the north of Anegada, the northernmost island in the Lesser Antilles. A break in the subtropical ridge, caused by Tropical Storms Fabian and Henri, was responsible for the northward turn and caused Gloria to take a northwest track. While passing to the northeast of the Bahamas, Gloria strengthened significantly in very favorable conditions, reaching major hurricane status on the 24th and peak wind speeds of 145 mph (235 km/h) and a central pressure of 919 mbar on the 25th. This is the second lowest pressure ever recorded in an Atlantic hurricane that never reached Category 5 status, only second to Hurricane Opal of the 1995 season.
Shortly after peaking, Gloria's asymmetrical wind field caused the storm to rapidly weaken, and its winds decreased to 90 mph (145 km/h) after 18 hours. Continuing around the periphery of the subtropical ridge, the hurricane turned to the north-northeast, and its winds strengthened to 105 mph (170 km/h) as it passed over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. Gloria then struck Cape Hatteras, North Carolina early on September 27, with winds of 105 mph (170 km/h) and a pressure of 942 mbar while accelerating to the northeast. Gloria became the strongest recorded hurricane to strike the U.S. East Coast so far north, a distinction it still holds. It paralleled the coastlines of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey, coming within miles of land.
Gloria made its final landfall on western Long Island near Long Beach, New York as a weaker yet still strong hurricane just 10 hours after hitting the Outer Banks. Originally, the National Hurricane Center classified Gloria as a major hurricane upon making landfall but it was later downgraded in the seasonal post-analysis. Even so, the hurricane did produce Category Three wind gusts throughout Long Island. Shortly thereafter the storm crossed the Connecticut coastline near Bridgeport as a Category 1 hurricane, and while continuing northeastward through New England, it became extratropical over Maine early on the 28th. After moving through Atlantic Canada, the extratropical storm tracked eastward before dissipating on October 2 to the southwest of Iceland.
Read more about this topic: Hurricane Gloria
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