Hurricane Tina (1992) - Meteorological History

Meteorological History

Tina originated from a tropical wave that left the African coast on September 5. Six days ater, the wave moved through the Lesser Antilles. The wave did generate disorganized fare-ups while entering the Caribbean Sea, but due to strong wind shear further development failed to occur. On September 16, while about 300 mi (480 km) west of Acapulco, Mexico. By tha time, the wave had entered the East Pacific basin. The system began to become more organized and on 1200 UTC September 7, the NHC upgraded the disturbance into a tropical depression, the twenty-second of the season. as the disturbance had changed dramatically in organization. The depression became Tropical Storm Tina the next day. The system began an intensification trend, and Tina strengthened a moderate storm 24 hours after attaining tropical storm status. and the NHC forecasted Tina to become a hurricane.

As forecasted, Tina reached hurricane status at 1800 UTC September 20. Tina reached a secondary peak of 85 mph (140 km/h) the next day. By September 21, shear began to take a toll on the hurricane, as deep convection decreased. Tina briefly weakened back into a tropical storm, but regained hurricane intensity for another two days. However, data from a Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicted that Tina had weakened back to tropical storm status, thus ending the first of three strengthening trend of Hurricane Tina. By September 24, Tropical Storm Tina took a sharp turn north-northeast towards the west coast of Mexico, due a combination of a weakness in a subtropical ridge and a mid-level to low-level trough passing north of the tropical cyclone. Shortly thereafter, an anticyclone that developed west of the Baja California Coast.

By September 27, steering flow moved Tina away from the coast of Mexico, where there was little wind shear. the tropical storm then began to re-intensify. Tina regained hurricane status on September as it accelerated. On September 28, Tina had reached major hurricane intensity. The next day, Tina intensified some more, becoming a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale. Late on September 29, the storms pressure had fallen to 944 mb and winds had increased to of 145 mph (230 km/h) while Tina was located 90 mi (140 km) away from the Mexican coast. Overnight on September 30 Tina peaked with winds of 150 mph (240 km/h) and a pressure of 930 mb. On October 1, the hurricane underwent fluctuations in intensity.

Tina began to change its path over the next days due to an approaching trough which allowed Tina to turn northbound into cooler sea surface temperatures as well as into an area of increasing wind shear. The eye became very large, peaking in size on October 4. However, the less favorable environment caused Tina to slowly weaken;the system weakened back to tropical storm status late on October 4. Tina's motion decreased due to weak steering currents. As such, Tina continued to weaken, and was downgraded into a tropical depression. At this time, only a swirl of clouds remained, with limited deep convection. The next day Tina moved into the Central Pacific Hurricane Center's area of responsibility and six hours later, the winds had dropped to 30 mph (45 mm/h). Tina still maintained a small area of deep convection despite decreasing seas surface temperatures until dissipation on October 11.