Tropical Storm Arlene (1993) - Meteorological History

Meteorological History

A tropical wave was detected on satellite images in the Caribbean Sea near the coasts of Honduras and Nicaragua on June 9. The system moved westward over other Central American countries, most notably, El Salvador. Initially, strong wind shear from the west and northwest prohibited the system from strengthening as it moved into the Gulf of Mexico. On June 16 the tropical wave interacted with an upper-level low which caused some inaccuracies in the forecast. The data produced by the National Hurricane Center indicates that an 1008 mbar low formed over the Yucatán Peninsula. But when a reconnaissance hurricane hunter aircraft flew in, they only found a broad area of low pressure, with no closed or low level circulation, despite the fact that satellite photo shows the system developing very well.

However, only a few hours later satellite photos also showed some convective bands from the system, so it was declared a tropical depression on June 18, Tropical Depression Two to be more specific. The center of the storm was south of a low pressure system to the north and that low forced the depression to move west-northwest. During another flight into the storm, the hurricane hunter crews reported a 1006 mbar reading but could not get an accurate fix. On June 19, a comma shaped band of thunderstorms formed around the center this caused slightly strengthening and further organization. The National Hurricane Center upgraded the depression to a tropical storm on that same day at 1200 UTC and new tropical storm received the name Arlene, therefore it was reclassified as Tropical Storm Arlene. Arlene moved northwestward at 2 to 3 mph (3.2 to 4.8 km/h) before nearly stalling because of a frontal system passing by. On June 20, Tropical Storm Arlene made landfall over Padre Island, Texas as a minimal tropical storm, the location of the center where it struck land was about 90 miles (140 km) to south of Corpus Christi. Tropical Storm Arlene quickly weakened to a depression shortly after landfall. The remnants of the storm was tracked over the lower Rio Grande valley of southern Texas and northeastern Mexico.